A Larger Family

It’s been far too long since my last blog – apologies! Life has been hectic, as my masters program comes closer and closer to an end. Only seven more months left of living in this wonderful place that I now consider home.

And I do consider this place a home. Having lived here for fully one year, it has taken on a unique familiarity that I wasn't sure would happen. Walking on the streets, the sounds and smells are familiar. Street vendors recognize me, and I know their names. I exchange greetings with acquaintances and friends as I go from one place to another. I have cravings for local foods and I've gotten so used to hearing the Muslim call to prayer, that I barely register it anymore. And when I've left Kibera for a while, when I’m returning and we reach a certain turn in the road, I feel internally a sense of calm contentment that only comes to you when you've arrived home.

I have family here. Genuine, loving family. I know which foods they love and which foods they hate. I know what time they’ll arrive home in the evening and what time they’ll leave in the morning. I know whose laundry is whose. I know all of their smiles, all of their laughs. And all because they opened their home and their lives to me. We've lived together for one year - eating together, cleaning together, traveling together, being sick together. We've cried together, laughed together, prayed together. We've shared our hopes and we've dreamed together. When I first came, I was a stranger in almost every way. Yet, they have warmly and graciously allowed me to become a part of their family, and I am overwhelmed by it daily.

This family, my family, along with many other friends that I have made, is what has so strongly endeared me to this place. The bonds we have made are much deeper than what I imagined when I initially moved into their small home a year ago. Although there is so much that could have separated us – language, culture, history, socioeconomics, lifestyle – there has been a beautiful openness and willingness to learn and grow together, to foster friendship and kinship, to love one another. And that simple, humble love has changed me.

While I love my family back in my Minnesota home immensely, my heart has expanded to love this family as a part of my own. But family is more than biology and genetics. It always has been. We are all part of the human family and as Christians we are part of the family of God. Recognizing and acknowledging that is one thing. To live it out is something completely different. My family here has shown me what it is to love as a part of a larger family, a family that has no boundaries defined by geography, ethnicity, culture, language, income, education, or social class. They've shown me something far more valuable and lasting than anything I have seen during my time here.

Family was always meant to be greater than the one that I was born to. Before, it was merely a theoretical concept, something my head understood, but my heart didn't. Now, that family has a face, it has a certain smile, it has a distinct laugh. That family has a heart - and it has stolen mine.