2014 ...Goodbye its been one hell of a year

As 2014 draws to a close, I cannot believe I am still working, haha so much for having a job with the benefits of school holidays! Hopefully I will wrap uo everything by Monday and then I will take a well deserved break until the 12th of January. Looking back on 2014.....

We started the year with Jesse's 16th birthday!

Jason was dealt a blow with his health and had to delay his studies. He has bravely walked this year and made the most of the opportunity writing beautiful worship songs, and serving at Commonground, and working really hard as a waiter at Peddlar's and then Jakes.

It's been an awesome year for Ashleigh, first her coming of age and then graduating on the 18th of December. She is growing up into the most beautiful young lady. We have walked a long road the last four years. But she is starting to shine. She moves into her final year at UCT doing her Honours. I am immensly proud of the strong beautiful woman is growing up to be. I pray daily that God will draw her to Himself and continue to to protect and love her as only He can do In April my good friend Debi last Darren to cancer. It was the saddest week of my year. How do you walk alongside a friend who has lost her first born son. It has been a difficult journey but God has been gracious to Debbie and her beautiful family whom I have grown to love and care for more deeply this year. Kimmy and I have had a lot of fun this year since they moved to Cape Town. We still have a long road to walk. I love you Debi, you have a strong and gentle spirit. I will continue to walk this journey of grace with you....He has so much still planned for your amazing family.

May we celebrated Jason's 20th birthday. God has done a lot in this young man's life this year. He is recovering everyday from the two awful grand mal seizures he suffered in January and March. He has become responsible for his health, he has worked hard and God has a wonderful future planned for him.

July holidays came and we had a fantastic week away in Knysna with my sister and Byron.

August saw my gorgeous man turning 51.

September 1st we celebrated 24 years together with a surprise romantic getaway. He took my breathe away planning the most wonderful getaway to Stanford. We celebrated my birthday in style with a High Tea just for ladies. We also had the boys going off to a Grade 10 dance and then Jason to another matric dance.

October and November flew by with lots of work to do at school. A Pastel programmed that was deleted by an intern, and then a disaster when it was reinstalled to find out everything in Petty Cash had been captured wrong. I have been furiously working to get everything finished by Monday. Then I am officially going to take two weeks holiday. Almost there busy on August month. Christmas was fun! See a previous blog on how we got it right this year!!!

We will be going to camp at Beaverlac for the 31st and 1st of January. I hate camping but for once I am actually looking forward to getting away from it all. No computer no cell phones NO WORK!!!!!

So bring on 2015 I do not know how we got here so quickly. It has been a crazy and beautiful year. Thank you Lord for your grace and favour over the Blignaut family. We love to do life together with you Jesus.

Kari Jobe - The more I seek you (Lyrics)

Healer | Kari Jobe

Getting Christmas Right

I think I can truly say that this year for the first time ever we got Christmas right! We had a dinner on Christmas Eve, at the Silikamva High. I had invited children dear to my heart and asked them to come with their families if they had families.Most those I invited don't actually have families which was why I decided to do this. So with the help of my good friend Mrs Edwards we thought about how we could make this work. We told all our friends that this is what we were doing this Christmas Eve and if they wanted to join us they could. Well they all joined in. It was an amazing time of loving people less fortunate than ourselves. In no way are they any less than us, in actual fact they are so rich and full of warmth. I loved every minute last night of doing Christmas with these folk. It was just an evening of fun with some of my students and some who brought a mom or aunt along or sibling. We ate. we laughed, we took lots of photos. It was a time of building friendships and really living diversity! I will never do Christmas any other way again. I will always try to love this way going forward. To continue to genuinely love and care for people whose life is so much more difficult than mine on a resource level. Leaving Silikamva and moving on next month is going to be deeply difficult for me. In some ways I feel God's timing is perfect but I know that my heart is going to break in tiny pieces as I say goodbye at the end of January. I know it will only be good bye on an admin level, I have formed deep and lasting friendships with some of the young girls and I intend to be like a mother figure to them, to take them on hikes and to engage on a different level. But my time will be less and I will no longer see their beautiful smiles everyday. I trust God will show me how that future engagement will be. I am looking forward to a new season, especially in growing relationships with my two boys as we travel to school and college together. How cool that I will be working in close proximity of all my three kids next year. We will be able to do coffee and lunch sometimes. It is a scary thought going into new territory once again as I am so comfortable and secure in my present environment, and I have worked hard to get things to a level where actually everything is working. It will be easy for the next person to walk into my role with everything set up. I guess that's what being a pioneer is all about. I have always asked God to keep me open to being a pilgrim on this journey He has called me to. I never want to be complacent in my walk with Him. I am able to do hard so long as I know it is Him that is leading me.

I feel it is, there were 100, then there were 10, then there were 3. Then there was the call to say that they would like to offer me the position as Finance Administrator at St Joseph's Marists College. I made it out of 100 CV's they looked at. It was a great ego boost, as I have had my ego bruised a few times this year. It has given me the confidence to believe in myself and the skills I have to offer again. So I will embrace this challenge with both hands open and a heart that is available and seeking after God. I will finish strong at Silikamva next month, I will trust God to bring in the right person to continue to support and love these precious lives with a love and capacity that perhaps will be greater than mine.....