Learning from Winnie the Pooh

Christmas has had a feeling of being bittersweet this year. 

I love Christmas.

It's the holiday where I celebrate the birth of Jesus.

There's no greater holiday.

I love being with ones I love.

I love teaching my students all about Christmas.

It's a sweet time of year for sure.

And again, it's the birth of Jesus! That's huge y'all! It is!

But at the same time...

This will be the first Christmas ever spent away from family.

And that makes me feel sad.

...very sad.

...and lonely.

And I'm not going to lie. That part of Christmas this year is tough.

But I was reminded of that Winnie the Pooh quote the other day, where he says, 

"How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard." 

And you know, that's true.

How lucky (or rather, blessed) am I to have a family who makes saying goodbye or I miss you so hard...

How blessed am I to have a group of people to miss like I do.

I fully realize not everyone is as blessed as me.

And that is what I try to remember when homesickness creeps its way in.

That is what I try to remember when sadness over missing Christmas with family creeps in.

And I do feel I need to end by once again giving a bit of an FYI to anyone reading who may think otherwise, assuring them that... 

I so very much love what I do here. I love that I am here in Senegal, teaching at my school, following the call of God on my life. I know I'm doing what I need to do - what God wants me to do. So don't confuse my sadness over missing family with negativity toward the calling God has placed on my life because I promise that's not the case :)