There are so many blogger friends that I admire... One of them certainly is Olga from the blogs: Lacy Crochet and: Olga's Home and Garden. For sure Olga is a young lady with golden hands, born and grown up in the Ukraine. She is living in California since 2001. Check out her blogs you will find many surprises as she is capable of baking, cooking, crocheting, gardening... A real sentipede! My most favorite story by Olga is: Ukrainian Countryside (just click this hyperlink and read also her own comment which is the final one). Especially during this season of Christmas, where the emphasis is so commercial, for spending lots of money on gifts... Have we all forgotten where we came from? Olga is brave enough to write about her very humble and hard working maternal grandparents and great-grandparents that lived in such a tiny home... Seen in her photos, as she visited this place during summer. Her own Mother did grow up there. In many East European countries there is still a lot of poverty, especially for the elderly (below post is a link, just scroll down to last picture for seeing what I talk about). We have seen it in Hungary and those images never leave our retina. Sure we visited during the Communist regime, still behind the Iron Curtain. But those elderly do struggle on, as many are not even able to pay for the rent of their apartment... Living in poverty, in cold and misery and malnourished. That idea clashes with the way overdone Christmas hype of creating each year new type of decorations and spending on-going money... It has nothing to do with the true meaning of Christmas but more with a culture that turned to greed. "Greed has replaced religion as the national religion, and with greed comes envy." --Wesley Pruden quote.
This perfectly crocheted angel is a gift from Olga that I cherish. THANKS AGAIN OLGA!
We don't have many Christmas ornaments or decorations, never even put up a Christmas tree anymore.
Our tree and most things we gave away when we moved from Georgia to Pennsylvania.
After working and living in different continents and seeing so much poverty, we never could bring ourselves again to put up a Christmas tree...
Sure I admire them at other bloggers' posts and for Children it is great to do this.
We have no family here in the USA, only one Christmas our foster-daughter Anita from Indonesia came to stay with us for 2 months. That was very warm!
Instead of giving presents, we felt more for giving this deaf girl her former education by paying for her college and university and later giving her the Danish Oticon hearing aid so she could HEAR.
I never ever will forget that phone call where she called and said: "Mama I can hear you now!" I cried for joy... She never before heard her Parents, her siblings, music, never heard the birds or other animals. That to me is Christmas!
We did it with love, paying for it from Pieter's pension. We do live off just one pension and since I'm younger, there is quite a wait for me before I will receive my pension too. But we managed all those years and with pride.
Step-daughter Liz's Mom still receives her monthly income from Pieter and we both share what is left. We are content and happy with it, as we both know the true value of life.
This is our family; even if we live in different continents. Not easy but they are in our hearts and in our prayers always. Sad fact is that neither of our girls has been warmly accepted into my family... WHY?
My husband Pieter is an orphan, he has no Parents or brothers left since August... that hits hard too; especially for Christmas time. Pieter has only his daughter Liz, and three nieces and great nieces and nephew; all living in The Netherlands. But we have our Angels in heaven and I guess that my sister Mariet who was still born, is closer to me than any of the other six living siblings.
Just some Christmas sentiments...
Related link:
{Anita Anggraeni our Foster Daughter}: previous post by me
{Our Daughter Liz}: previous post by me
{# 148 and my blog is 1 year old today!}: previous post by me about my sister Mariet...
