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| A scared and timid Nara stepping off the plane in Charlotte from Ethiopia. |
"interesting" months to say the least. Things started out really slow and tough. In the first month or so, Nara wouldn't have anything to do with me (Ryan). If I walked into the room she would immediately stop playing or whatever she was doing and run to her mom and want her to pick her up. There were several days I remember just watching her play outside with her mom from the kitchen window just so she could relax and have fun. So to use the word "tough" is an understatement. However, Nara eventually started to come around and embrace the idea of me being her dad. She has actually recently become my little buddy.
I think something that happened on Christmas morning really confirmed and solidified to Courtney and I how Nara feels about us. The week before Christmas I was at home with Nara while Courtney was at work and Nara came to me to tell me that she was wrapping mommy and daddy a gift for Christmas. She went into her room with the wrapping paper, tape, and scissors and went to work. I caught a glimpse of what she was wrapping and it was a Liberty University notepad that I had given her several months back. The notepad is in pretty rough shape and has been scribbled in and on for months. I thought to myself, "Well that's cute. We'll just have to pretend to be really excited about our 'gift' on Christmas morning."
Well Christmas morning finally arrived and we were up at 6:30am with Nara ready to see what the whole Santa thing was all about. Nara walked into the living room and was very quiet and looked around and said, "Mom...dad...where's Santa?" She thought that Santa would be waiting on her when she woke up on Christmas morning. After some explaining we sat down and started on our stockings first. Nara was so excited about her Hello Kitty battery powered toothbrush. Seriously, I really think that was her favorite gift. We finished up with stockings and it was time for gifts. This was this little girls first Christmas ever...it aches me to think of what she was doing on Christmas morning the past couple years...she had gifts and toys from Santa waiting on her to dig into and she says, "Mommy and Daddy open your gift first!" She ran around the tree and grabbed the box that contained her "gift" for Courtney and I. She had written my name and Courtney's name on the outside of the box as well as her name and a couple of smiley faces, ha. Courtney and I proceeded to open the gift and we put on our smiles and unwrapped the shabby notepad. However, upon further inspection, we began flipping through the pages and Nara had drawn, with great care, pictures on many of the pages for us. There were Christmas trees, smiley faces, stickers, and stick figure pictures of our little family.
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| Presenting mom and dad with their "gift". |
This whole time we were thinking, "Well she just grabbed some random notepad and threw it in a box so lets just act excited." When in actuality, she knew she didn't have any money to buy us anything or even own anything that she knew we would want. So what she did was take all that she had to work with, and poured her time, talents, energy, and love into it. She gave that gift with so much joy on her face. That my friends, is what Christmas is all about. I'd even go as far to say that this is what the Christian life is all about! You take what you have to work with, you invest your time, talents, energy, and love and you give with great joy. And most of all, you put others before yourself. Courtney and I love and appreciate all the gifts we received for Christmas, but we can both can say with complete certainty that our gift from Nara is our absolute favorite.
I believe Nara's gift to us displays a level of authenticity that is almost unheard of in the church and our culture in general. She put so much time, effort, and love into her gift. She could have just given us some really lavish, expensive gift, but wouldn't that really just be the easy way out? Yes, those lavish gifts may require the sacrifice of some money, but what else does it really cost you? It requires very little investment of time, talent, or love really. If we could all learn to invest, love, and give with the authenticity that Nara displayed, who knows what the church could accomplish?
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| So excited about us unwrapping the gift she wrapped. |
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| One of the pieces of art inside her gift to us. (the stickers are ornaments)
In Him,
Ryan Thomas
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