What happened to my little monster?

It was a lifetime ago; long before the days of driving to dinner with friends, baby sitting on New Year's Eve and high school; long before a move across the sea to another land, even before those fun elementary homeschooling days. It was a simpler time before the pressure of SATs, grades and getting into college and a little 3 1/2 year old girl sat with a square pad of paper and a pencil. She drew alone; the Daddy off at med school, the Mommy probably in the shower or taking care of the baby brother. She meticulously drew the same picture on each piece of paper. She had a plan! While no one was looking, she hid those pieces of paper around the house, in drawers, cabinets, under the covers in the bed, any little hide-y hole a 3 year old could find. Wouldn't the Mommy and Daddy be scared when they found them.

Later that day the first one was discovered. "What's this?", the daddy asked the Mommy. The little girl could hardly contain herself, "It's a monster. Are you scared?" She giggled. Over the next few weeks, monsters turned up in all sorts of places, each one greeted with the appropriate "scared" response from the parents. They were typical of drawings by kids of that age, a round circle with eyes, a nose and jagged triangles for monster teeth, 2 stick arms came off each head and an occasional one also had 2 stick legs coming out of the bottom of the head. They were stacked together until there were 30, 35, then more than 40 little monsters. Eventually, monster findings became fewer and fewer and after a while, in an effort to clean up, the mom threw away the stack of monsters. More than a year had passed when one day the Mommy was digging through her makeup drawer and found, tucked in the back under a plastic tray, a little monster. She showed it to the little girl and the daddy and they all chuckled about the monsters before the Mommy tucked the little monster back into the drawer.

Time marched on, and the little girl grew, the family moved, then moved again overseas. The little monster moved along with the family, always living in a drawer with the Mommy's makeup. Occasionally, coming out as the Mom showed him to the Dad and they remembered that funny little girl and her "trick". One day, it came time for the family to return to the US for a year. The monster was packed up and returned with the family. The next year or so was a confusing time as the little girl became a teenager and the busyness that brings. There were a couple of moves as the family settled into life in the states. In all of this, the little monster was misplaced, forgotten and somehow lost.

For some reason, the Mom was reminded of the little monster one New Year's Eve. Perhaps it was because the Mom was looking for something in her makeup drawer or maybe it was that for the first time the little girl wouldn't be home on this night, but instead, off watching someone else's little boy. Whatever the reason, the bathroom was searched, each drawer dug through, the clothes drawers scoured and dumped, but much to my dismay, no little monster was found.

As I look ahead to 2012, I can't help but look back. How did we get here? How did time pass so quickly? Shouldn't my girl be little still?Moving into the new year, I'm excited to see what this year will bring, but it comes at a price and a little sadness. This will be the year that my youngest will learn to drive. It will most likely be the last full year my little girl will live at home. My Dad one time told me that days seem like years, but the years just fly by. I think I was about Emily's age at the time, and I understood the days seeming long as I sat in school each day. Now I truly understand fully what he meant. So my resolution for 2012 is to not get bogged down in the frustrations of each day, but to see the bigger picture, to stop and remember the "little monster" stories that happen during this year. We won't pass this way again and I want to cherish this precious time.

As for the little girl, she still likes to draw, but her pictures have gotten much better. I wish I could show you the little monster, but instead I will have to just leave you with this one drawn just this week.

Home for the Holidays

I vividly remember our first major holiday away from home, living on the other side of the world. I remember it so well because my family seems to like to bring it up and laugh about it.

It was Thanksgiving and we had been living in the Philippines for about 4 months; long enough for some of the newness to wear off. Our ministry partners were back in the states for their son's wedding and we were alone. Being that this was an American holiday and we were no longer in America, it was mostly just another typical day. The kids went to school, ministry continued, but 9000 miles away my family gathered together to celebrate their Thankfulness and stuff themselves with turkey and sweet potatoes. I had tried to talk to them on the phone earlier in the day, but with their house full and getting ready for the big event, they didn't really have much time to talk. I understood, really I did, but that evening as I sat at our table, dripping sweat in the evening heat, and eating our own turkey, I wasn't very Thankful. In fact, I burst out crying at the table. Here is why the kids and Allan like to tease, and giggle, "Haha, Remember that time you cried at Thanksgiving?" I do. I remember it- vividly; a picture imprinted on my brain. (You can read the blogs Allan and I posted about that day here: http://thegilmers.blogspot.com/2005/11/happy-thanksgiving.html ; http://thegilmers.blogspot.com/2005/11/what-we-did-on-thanksgiving.html)

Holidays came and went in the Philippines and I never cried at the table again. We made new traditions, ate with new "family", and while we made great memories during those holidays, I always had a little part of me that longed to be "home".

A few years later, it would make that first Thanksgiving and Christmas back in the States all the sweeter as we gathered around the table with our loved ones.

Each year around this time, I'm reminded of those living and serving around the world. Those Americans who have left hearth and home to bring the reason we celebrate Christmas to others. We have dear friends scattered across the globe, some of them living in countries where Christmas will go mostly unrecognized. My heart and prayers go out to them. But today my heart was touched by another group of people that will once again miss being home with family for Christmas.

The biggest export from the Philippines is her people. Filipinos leave their homeland in huge numbers in order to find work. Called OFW, Overseas Filipino Workers span the globe, in almost every country. Current numbers put that amount around 10-11 million workers, roughly 11% of the population. They are working hard and sending money back to support their families. Each year over 16 billion dollars is sent back to their homeland. Moms and Dads who can't find decent work at home, leave their spouses and kids in order that their families can have a chance at a decent life, food on the table, an education. Often educated, skilled workers take on unskilled jobs such as domestic helpers and personal service workers. Doctors become nurses because they can make more in the United Kingdom as a nurse than as a Doctor in the Philippines. College graduates perform jobs in manual labor, migrant work, construction, and fisheries in the Middle East, Nigeria, and Malaysia. The sad part is, many leave the Philippines for years without being able to return. Unlike the American Missionary, most don't get a "furlough" or home assignment. They are working and struggling to provide for their parents, children, and siblings. This year my heart and prayers also go out to them and to all those far from home and loved ones during the holidays.

CocaCola embarked on a project to help ease the pain of being away from home for a few of these Filipinos as part of their "Where Will Happiness Strike Next" Campaign. Called the "OFW Project", they surprised families by bringing their loved ones home for Christmas. Here is a video about the project. You might want to have a couple of tissues handy.