Word of the Week

Who says that your life has to look like everyone else's?

Who says that emotions of Christmas are reserved only for those who you are related to?

Who says that you can't travel to two continents in one month to celebrate Christmas with over 150 children/ youth just because?

God has blessed us and so there's only one choice we have: give back. Not just in things but in physical presence.

Such as been the story of Christmas JOY for the Hagans since this time last November.

We celebrated Christmas in Kenya with these beautiful children.

DSC_0518

DSC_0497

Then we traveled the last weekend to Honduras to celebrate Christmas with a group of boys living in a children's home we also knew well from our time at Feed the Children.

We just hung with the youth of the center.

We danced the night away with these little guys too!

And today, we gathered around the table of those who bear our last name and played with little guys like this one . . .

IMG_0027

And extended family like this during the most tropical Christmas on record in Georgia!

IMG_0111

I truly believe that JOY is an emotion that you can FEEL if you allow yourself to experience it. And I feel so grateful to have received it in several unique places over the last several weeks.

In all of this, I don't want you to think that everything is perfect in our lives. There's sadness this Christmas for me as there always is. But there's joy alongside the sadness. Joy that finds a way to bubble up when I stick close to dear ones like these to me from all over the world.

Where did joy find you this Christmas?

(Thanks to Edna and Heidy for capturing some of these lovely moments on your cameras!)