But perhaps the most significant thing is that Jesus is no longer an abstract person, a walking theology, a list of do’s and dont’s to me. This is the year I recognized him as my battered, bruised brother, and I see how he never once left my side. Every year I think now this year, this is the year I finally *get* Advent. The sadness, the waiting, the longing for all things to be made new. And every year I do understand it a little bit better. This does not show any sign of stopping.

Hello! Greetings from the Mayfields. This was our hardest year ever, and we still haven’t recovered!

In the past year we:

Left our mission organization. I experienced a traumatizing pregnancy and birth and nearly died. Our baby was born a month early and had to be hospitalized for several scary days at 6 weeks old. We moved across the country and said goodbye to amazing friends and jobs. We put our daughter through a hell of a lot of transition. Our baby never did learn to sleep very good.  Our van broke down for good. We moved to the outer edges of Portland, a food-and-culture desert. We moved into a cramped, loud, chaotic apartment complex. Our upstairs neighbors drove their car into my daughter’s bedroom. My husband got a job but it is taking forever to get back on our feet financially. Every month we hope that this time we won’t qualify for food stamps, but it hasn’t happened yet. My anxiety got so bad my body decided to get depressed in order to “fix things.” I wrestled with my book manuscript, but it’s hard to edit when you are sad and aren’t sleeping and have little people to care for. We became very isolated, partly on purpose, partly because we didn’t have the energy to reach out to old friends.

It was the year of hard things. Temper tantrums, anxiety disorders, strange fevers, panic attacks, shut-down souls. We have been in survival mode since April, we are shocked that we are still not out. We grit our teeth as we agonize over every purchase, every stomp from above that keeps us up at night, as we stick close to our apartment complex due to lack of money and a baby who doesn’t like to be out to long. Solidarity, solidarity, solidarity. It doesn’t really help.

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