Our front door….
We have hired help, a maid. I announce this in almost a guilty manner, acknowledging some dirty secret I’ve been too ashamed to admit, hoping no one would find out. Her name is Ibolya, she’s a mom of two; an older daughter in college in Budapest and a 14 year old son. She loves our dogs, and they adore her. I had a pretty hard first winter after we moved, and to bless me Norbert hired Ibolya, a friend of his mom’s to come and clean our place once a week. We pay her so little by American standards, but she cleans houses for a living and charges the going rate. This is a luxury for me right now, and a season; we don’t plan to hire anyone when we move, I’m long over my hard winter. But we like Ibolya and have kept her on. It was really weird at first, I’d never had someone come into our house like that, and clean up after me and my family. For the first few months I would clean up before she came to clean up. Seriously.
We had to tell Ibolya we’d be moving to Budapest. She was sad to lose us as clients. I am sad as I’ve gotten spoiled, and been very blessed by her. But it also turns out, she’s been blessed by us too. Out of all the homes she enters to clean, ours is the only one where people are not grumbling and complaining. She will miss the laughter and joking in the home. And for her, it was a place to recharge – she will miss our peaceful home. That blew me away. I was not surprised by her noticing the laughing and joking, we’re a rather goofy household. And I’m not sharing this to brag, I really had not stopped to consider if our home was full of Peace or not. I have always hoped it was, and I’ve strived to make it such. But we have three teenagers; there are lots of hormones flying around. It has not felt very peaceful to me. And maybe your home doesn’t feel all that peaceful to you either, especially as I think we tend to compare or hold our homes up to ideals. But to Ibolya, she felt the Peace, and she’s going to miss it. And hearing her voice all that, it really touched me – we know God wants us here in Hungary, for now we’re not here for anything else except to be our family, but to be that family here. Because people like Ibolya don’t know that Peace, but they feel it in our home. And for that I am immeasurably thankful.
lakatosfamily 