Christmas Newsletter 2016

My hair is wet, I just got out of the shower & I noticed these white glistening dots on my head. “Crap! I hope that isn’t lice!” I leaned into the mirror & started combing through my hair & then I realized…it’s just white hair.

I received a text from Jaclyn a few weeks ago around 6:30pm. I was getting more things from our house to move to my aunt’s house where we are currently staying. The text read:

“Mommy, I found a bug on my pillow”

“I think I have lice”

Not in a gazillion years would I have thought my 12yr old would contract lice. I felt bad for her as she sat hunched over a stool for over 4hrs that night as I combed through small sections of her hair, pulling at each strand that had a sticky nit (lice egg) while Paul spoon fed her dinner. I couldn’t sleep or let her sleep until every single nit was out!  I felt bad for me.

It was exhausting to say the least & everyday afterwards, the whole family were paranoid, checking eachothers heads for nits & lice. It was humorous at times but NOT.

Nits are the size of a grain of sand & sticky like dried droplets of glue. When they hatch & become mature louse, they love to suck the blood off the scalp causing itching & inflammation. Sounds like a bad case of stress which sometimes come unnoticed until it causes damage.

We have been challenged this year with many nits, mostly coming from our home addition project but despite our stress capacity limits at times, we have been receiving God’s grace freely which has helped us manage through.

I have been reminded time & time again this year of God’s abundant grace especially through our neighbors. To note a few examples – our sweet 89 yr old neighbor who baked homemade biscotti & insisted we eat it while we were packing our car for the move; even when her laneway was becoming messy with “reno crap” (new word) – our other next door neighbor for letting Paul make soup last minute after our gas was shut off unexpectedly & for their patience when our excavator cut their internet cable with no service for 2 days – for getting through committee of adjustments smoothly – for my aunt Grace who has allowed us to live in her house rent free – and for the cooperative weather we HAD in Nov for allowing the contractors complete the foundation work a little easier.

Despite the nits we have experienced this year that tested our patience, our relationships, our energy, our capacity, God’s grace has proven sufficient in handling any pesty nits.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

(2 Corinthians 12:9)

May the grace of Christ our Savior & the love of God our Father & the fellowship of the spirit be with you & yours this Christmas. 

~ Sheila, Paul, Jaclyn & Aaron