James, Joel & Anna are heading back to school and growing up entirely too fast for my taste! Anna is becoming quite the chapter book reader and can't wait to start cursive and multiplication. Joel is honing his writing skills and still loves drawing dragons in his free time. James is learning about organizing several different subjects and teachers into one 3-ring binder.
Joel turned 10 this summer and for a week was as tall as his older brother! His feet are a full size bigger already, but James shot up another inch or two. It won't be easy to pass him! All three enjoyed lots of swimming lessons and pool time this summer, but we are all looking forward to some cooler weather!
They all join Mom for BSF on Monday nights again this year and have grown so much. This year is Life of Moses, which James and I began several years ago before moving mid-year back to Congo. It will be fun to finish the study in one place!
The dust is settling. The moving boxes are all finally gone. The last suitcases are finally unpacked. And we're feeling more and more at home, even if we will never feel like Texans!
James, Joel & Anna are still traversing the globe emotionally and socially. Physically we have lived in the same United States for over a year now, but only settled for six months and still missing what feels like home: Africa. Some days the red dirt and smiling friends are far from their minds, but other days they wake up and want to sing in Swahili and plan a trip. Anna misses airports. What a strange thing to miss. Their whole lives have included travel, so there is a strange thing missing now.
We had the privilege to get to know another family just as they were heading out. Opposite direction. It was wonderful to be able to share a love of Africa and her gorgeous people with someone who just understood. As part of a writing assignment James decided to give advice to his new friend soon leaving for the motherland. I found some of his advice profound:
From One African MK to Another by James, the African
Because I am an African missionary kid myself, I'd like to provide you a bit of advice before your upcoming move.
Play in the dirt. Mold houses, monsters, ornaments, figurines, etc. out of the red African clay. You can have a lot more fun in the dirt.
Play with every kind of bug! Interestingly, they make fun pets, and if you use them right, toys. My brother liked to trap two moths and pretend they would 'fight' with each other. He called it "Moth Wars". It's hilarious.
Learn the language better than I did and have fun playing with African kids, because they know all the funnest games and things to do there. In choosing your friends, money, skin color or houses totally don't matter.
The trees there are awesome to climb.
Watch out for rabid dogs. They can kill you with one bite.
Eat piles of mangoes for me!
I chose a verse for you that helped my family when we first moved to Congo: "The Lord replied, 'I will personally go with you Moses and I will give you rest - everything will be fine for you.'" Exodus 33:14 NLT
I hope you take my advice and love being a missionary kid in Africa.
What do you call those little clips from your favorite show that catch you up quickly on important plot developments? They might be annoying to some, but useful to others. The reason you missed our plot developments from the past 4 months has been that we didn't write them down. We were too busy living them. But I will give you the "previously on..." sequence to catch up those who like it.
Seeing that my last post was the kids' Back-to-School pictures...
School:
Anna had a great beginning to Kindergarten and is much more comfortable with addition facts and reading these days. James is doing great with 4th grade Calvert. This is his first year with a correspondence teacher, transcript and grades, so there is more accountability to get least favorite subjects finished well. He went from a few painful sentences to writing a 3-paragraph essay on his own. He continues his grain-free, allergen-free diet and is doing well. Joel used to think of Spelling like pulling teeth. No. Fun. He is kinesthetic and Spelling is visual. These days he is acing Grade 2 Spelling thanks to All About Spelling - which emphasizes letter magnets on a white board (Check it out if you are looking for kinesthetic-friendly options.) Just ask him if he likes school. He will say, "Y-E-S!"
September:
At the end of September, I had the pleasure and joy of co-teaching a workshop for Congolese Literacy Experts and Translators to become checkers for publication. I had previously been the only certified checker in our organization and it was wonderful to pass the baton to so many. Lots more detail about this in our next newsletter! Our 4 years in Congo was quickly coming to an end and we wanted to make the most of it.
October:
In October, we started soaking up all the things we loved most about our home in Congo. We played more with our doggies. We ate more pineapple. Kim sang more often in choir. We spent more time with friends. We took one last week off in Uganda and started bringing out our luggage for "the move". We were blessed with the mamas choir deigning to sing and pray over our living room. Part of me wanted to videotape everything, but the greater part of me just wanted to relish in the goodnesses God had given. I didn't want to miss a minute behind a camera (or on a blog...?).
November:
November started out mundane enough, if anything is ever mundane in Congo. It brought the selling of our household items, packing and storing of others. Arranging for the absence between our departure and the arrival of a new family to live in our house. We scheduled my last Ladies' Bible study, Thanksgiving with friends and the kids' Fall Music Recital for the second-to-last week in November, but they were never meant to be. The town erupted in unrest Tuesday that altered everything about our last moments in our home. Most of our expat friends evacuated with their children. Our last chances for goodbyes were gone before we knew what happened. God kept us safe. Perfectly safe in a bubble of peace passing all understanding, but it wasn't easy. You will hear more about this one day when we are ready to write about it. We joke now that our 4-year-term ended with a bang. :)
December:
We spent the first half of December visiting supporters in France where we studied, and where our Joel came on the scene, in 2003-4. We walked off the plane with a mountain of luggage, no coats or socks and only sandals for shoes. It snowed 2 feet that night. We felt like displaced Africans. We found warm clothes eventually. And enjoyed warm fellowship. We ate our fill of fabulous cheese and chocolate. We made it to the grand ole USofA and back to Gramma's house for Christmas. It was lovely. And COLD.
January:
We quickly moved all our earthly belongings (except for the 2 boxes we forgot at Gramma's house and the 4 barrels we kept in Congo that is...) into the same furlough house in Oregon we had in 2002 and 2007. Some of the upgrades we left behind were still there! After 6 days of frantic unpacking and repacking, we left for a ministry retreat in California. Here we had time to breathe. Time to think again. Time to grieve the home and life we knew in Congo. Time to realize which country we came from. Reverse culture shock is always a bit overwhelming. It comes in waves when you expect to understand someone or something. But you don't anymore. It has changed. Or you have changed. Lots can change in 4 years...
Trying to keep it serious with our wonderful teacher Katie.
Here are a few 'outtakes' of this year's school pictures. With Anna in Kindergarten, we have three full-time students!
Having a stellar 4th grade year so far, our almost 10-year-old James looking dapper (and growing up too fast for Mom's taste!). I have the same teeth in my old 4th grade picture...
Last year was the year of no teeth for Joel, but this year they are coming in! Joel has recently taken up reading chapter books for fun, is the best coloring kid in the house and loves learning multiplication (believe it or not):
Anna is really enjoying Kindergarten, but speeding ahead in math. She must have some math genes from Grandma... :)
There's our winning lineup for the year! It will be an interesting school year chopped in half by an ocean and travels far and wide. Katie's help last spring and this fall are such a fun help for us all! The kids are all working on their French - we'll see how far they get before we visit!
I'm so cliche, I admit it - they grow up too fast!
It's been a couple years since I chronicled an average day. This was yesterday:
3:32am Wake up coughing (between dust and charcoal smoke this isn't uncommon).
3:45am Almost back to sleep when 2 shots ring out on main street a few blocks away. Probably the police keeping order.
4:02am Dive bombed by a stealthy mosquito who snuck into our net somehow. I zap him with my bug racket and try to go back to sleep. Again.
4:28am Our mosque next door calls everyone to wake up at top volume. I think he has new speakers. At least he only takes about 2 minutes (unlike the patterns of last month!)
4:44am He shouts it out again. I'm beginning to give up on the idea of any more sleep.
5:00am Finally back to sleep for one last hour before the day begins.
6:30am Dressed, up, meeting with employees. They want to work early today and leave early to fight long lines of parents trying to sign their kids up for school by next week.
7:30am Fried eggs and papaya made for breakfast. Headscarf donned to head out to my choir rehearsal (which 'starts' at 7:30, but I usually go around 8).
8:30am Walking and greeting my way down slick muddy streets stepping over the discarded plastics of the world. Finally get to church to find that no one is rehearsing today. I surmise it is not rained out, but probably they are traveling to sing for some event somewhere.
9:00am Back home to see that the kids get their schoolwork started. Katie, the wonder teacher arrives to help. Anna needs to finish a subject or two before leaving for her art class. Joel and James dig into school at home. James learns to cross-multiply fractions while Joel takes 30 minutes coloring elaborate pictures on his Greek mythology assignment.
9:30am Anna and I head over the muddy roads in our car. It's about a mile away, but roads aren't safe over 15 mph. The parking lot is small and full, so we pull into the weeds right outside the gate. We arrive just in time for art class.
11:00am Anna enjoys a magazine-collage decorated box project, which doubles as a game she can play with her brothers. She loves the sandbox at recess and the little toy horses she brought along for the occasion. Next to 3 preschoolers, she looks pretty big these days.
12:30pm We drive home for lunch, hear about the boys' day, and enjoy homemade bread and soup before a busy afternoon.
2:00pm The boys head next door to deliver invitations to their friends to come to a last weekend of summer party tomorrow. They stay and play with friends, building shapes and toys out of local clay.
2:30pm Anna and her bff Brooke learn cool French ballet terms in the living room with their fabulous weekly ballet lesson by Jennings.
3:30pm A colleague and friend, Maryanne, arrives to help us print, copy and collate 22 books that are 200-pages long! James has fun calculating how many pages we will need. The power has been off for 2 days and isn't likely to return. Given that Kent's class starts Monday, we need to use our own generator and printer to get the books ready in time. We think we can do it in about an hour.
4:30pm What were we thinking? Piles of paper are strewn all over our living and dining room. Four of us are working non-stop and an hour later we have barely finished 25% of the book!
6:30pm That big pot of beans is perfect to feed extra workers tonight! We all dish up a bowl of beans and top it with sauerkraut, cheese and yogurt while we keep working on the books. The table is too full, so we let the kids have a 'picnic' on the floor.
7:30pm No power also means no hot water. So between sorting papers, I heat water for the kids' bucket baths and they finish chores in time to read some Dr. Suess and Narnia before bedtime. After they are all tucked in and asleep, Kent drives our friends home. It's rainy and muddy for walking and not very safe to be out alone at night.
8:00pm While he's out, I dish up the food and tea for our night guards and feed the dogs their dinner. One last glance at Email adds two more urgent requests to the morning's work. But that's tomorrow.
8:30pm Our generator has now been running for 12 straight hours (on ONE tank of diesel). It is fabulous. We finally let it rest and turn off electronics and extras overnight, leaving only the fridge and security lights for the batteries to manage all night. Kent and I debrief the day and watch a few minutes of Downton Abbey Season 1. I'm so tired I barely hear the mice outside our bedroom window.
Joel has always loved that his birthday usually coincides with summer vacation! He spent his 1st, 2nd and 5th birthdays at the Kenyan coast, and was thrilled to get to spend his 8th there too! After all, 1+2+5 = 8.
The day started quietly. Our family tradition is that on their 8th birthday each kid gets a full-sized Bible of their own. Here Joel reads the dedication Kent wrote to him in the front:
The morning was spent at a sort of Vacation Bible School with lots of friends. Perfect birthday for our social Joel, or what? :) He planned out his travel wardrobe to save the blue Lego Star Wars shirt for the big day!
The hotel surprised us with a small cake at teatime. We ordered a large one at lunch to share with his friends, specially made without flour or sugar, so it was disappointing to have a surprise cake we couldn't eat. But he took it all in stride, and didn't mind having more people sing to him!
At lunchtime we ordered up a big pile of 'hedgehogs' (what we always called at home 'criss-cross mangoes'), which is Joel's favorite fruit. We flew in a few small boxes of 100% juice and added that to the blue-colored club soda to make a 'Blue Splash soda' without the Sprite (corn syrup) - more about foods later! He ate to his heart's content:
Then the singing, clanging began and the floral chair and special-order cake arrived! It was gorgeous chocolate banana-peanut honey cake covered in honey-vanilla whipped cream and decorated with 8 sticks of mango chunks and Enjoy Life GF Mega chunks. The best part is the huge grin on his face:
As a bonus, it was the best cake I had eaten at this hotel in several years. They are not famous for desserts... So many people asked for the recipe and wanted a bite! The hotel felt bad about our food restrictions and only charged us about $8, half what you pay for the smaller, less tasty cakes! Here's the inside view:
Yum!
No kids seemed to mind a less-sweet cake. And it might have been the first birthday party where no one left with a sugar high!
His friends lined up with plates right away! :)
We brought out the presents after the cake and singing. This one had been carried across the world to Congo and then back across Uganda and Kenya in the suitcases of two other MAF friends just to be there for him on his special day. Transformers!
This is one of several presents smuggled into the suitcases of colleagues all the way from Grandma and Grandpa's house. The most anticipated was his Star Wars Lego set of Ewoks, but I didn't get any stellar shots of that...
Super Joel, we love you and had so much fun celebrating your first 8 years!
We spent our GAPS-Diet anniversary on vacation at the beach. Somehow
it is hard to believe we have been grain-free for a whole year! The following is an abridged version of our one-year overview. Go here to the 'Our Diet' tab for the whole enchilada. Or if you have lots of time to read, go here for all our GAPS-SCD links.
We originally started GAPS for the health of James and I, but the
other three have seen benefits too. Kent, Joel and Anna were never
feeling sick, but they are healthier and stronger now for having
gone through GAPS. In
June, the three of them added potatoes back in without any trouble,
so they are officially coming off GAPS gradually. Next will be sweet
potatoes, fermented millet porridge, sourdough and eventually rice
and sprouted grains (maybe by Christmas?!).
ME (THE MOM):
In the past 6 months, I have been able to discontinue blood pressure
medication and daily antihistamines. For the past 20 years I have
taken daily antihistamines to control my running nose. These are no
longer necessary.
As a primary schoolteacher with a weak immune system, I was prone to getting colds and developing secondary infections every time. If only I had a dollar for everytime I was diagnosed with sinusitis or bronchitis (or both)! My second year teaching I think I took 12 different courses of
antibiotics. I was on antibiotics more than half of that year! Ten
years later, our GAPS journey has changed all that completely!
During our 2nd month on GAPS, I got a cold I couldn't
kick. As usual, it turned into bronchitis, and I took antibiotics as usual. The
5th month on GAPS, I got a cold and was able to fight it off a few days later without
getting infected! (This had probably happened twice in my living
memory.) The 9th month on GAPS I got a cold, but fought it off
within 48 hrs. The 11th month on GAPS we traveled internationally
(gets me every time!) and as expected, I got bronchitis a few days
later. I doused myself in bone broth and slept lots. I upped my
doses of probiotics and FCLO (fermented cod liver oil - in
capsules!). And 8-10 days later it was gone! Finally I don't
have to be envious of people with an immune system!
JAMES:
The biggest gains in James' healing happened in the first 4 mos. on
GAPS. But the more subtle changes we see a year later are just as
significant. He has very few Asperger's meltdowns - maybe 1-2/mo.
where they were daily or more often than that a year ago. He
regained all his auditory processing in the first 2 mos. His allergies seem gone. He
hasn't needed antibiotics of any kind in 14 months. His sensory
processing troubles with tactile under-responsiveness are gone, fading gradually over the past year. They
have left in their wake a few gross motor issues we can now address
(basically re-learning to keep your balance when you've been mostly
numb for 4-5 yrs or longer). The last pieces of tactile numbness
have faded in the past month or two.
This week we're preparing for another homeschool year. I found
myself taking down the labels on his workboxes. I made them in desperation,
searching for answers, 3 years ago. We haven't needed that familiar
structure and routine for months. A wave of nostalgia hit me like I was putting away
the last of the baby's pacifiers. My baby (10-yr-old
baby) has outgrown his Asperger's supports. Whether we technically
still qualify for a diagnosis is really not important. James is
feeling and doing great! The bulk of the work we have left to do is
in social skills and organizational skills, but I can't think of too
many 10-yr-old boys who have mastered both of those already...
We are so thankful for the healing protocol of the GAPS Diet (and
for SCD too!). They have served us well. I am a bit nervous about
re-introducing starches and sugars, but we'll get there as they say
in Swahili: "pole-pole" (step by step, or slowly, carefully).
It would really not be possible for her to be more excited about this step in growing up.
Sheer bliss of the long-awaited
James had seen it hanging by a thread and threatened to pull it out yesterday evening. They were watching Rapunzel (again?!), but decided to watch it in Spanish. [And no, they don't really speak Spanish. They just have the movie memorized. Anna was surprised to see that Rapunzel does know Spanish, and since her Mama also knows Spanish, she decided to try learning a few words.]
She just pulled it out herself somewhere when Rapunzel and her novio were singing about Las luces. =)
She kept marveling that she lost her first tooth on vacation and that it was in the same place she was born (Kenya). People here told her she is Kenyan, so now when we pass the Kenyan flag, she says 'There is my flag!"
And in case you were wondering, the tooth fairy does make it all the way to Kenya, but prefers to do business in US Dollars...
Just in case you haven't followed updates on facebook...
Anna did continue to improve and healed completely just in time for our long journey across Congo, Uganda and Kenya. She did amazingly well in the taxis and buses. The night before we left she downed a double serving of her dinner and topped it off with 3 small bowls of potatoes! She made up for lost time after keeping nothing in for days.
So all's well.
And none of us ever did get this flu, though we all thought about it several times and wondered... I'm fighting off a sinus infection. But what else is new?
Thanks so much for your prayers and encouragement!
As I began to worry about whether this trip (much like this one!) could or should really happen given the sickness and logistical hiccups, several of my sisters from choir came over to pray for our trip. They read from Exodus where Moses heads out and God promises, "I will go with you."
This particular verse is the one that I clung to when moving to Congo. And here it was again.
As we skimmed the choppy waters of Lake Albert, a beautiful white wagtail raced us in front of the wooden motor boat (and he won). And this verse rang in my ears... "I will go with you."
As we arrived at a tough, rural immigration office and found 2 helpful strangers willing to fight for us.... "I will go with you."
As we thumped along bumpy roads in a small game park in Western Uganda, we were surrounded by gorgeous herds of gazelle... "I will go with you."
I could list tiny moments for 10 pages and not get them all.
Sunsets, kind officials, potty stops just when we needed them, crisp apples for sale on the roadside, patient kids enduring a 14-hr bus ride without movies...
safety
health
taxis waiting for you on arrival
entertaining the kids with the reverse-cam in their car.
Thanks for everyone's prayers for Anna's health.
It's always a guessing game as to what is really going on.
All you can see is cookies tossed, lethargy, fever and total lack of appetite. Which could add up to about 30 different diagnoses. Food poisoning? Flu? Brucellosis? Hepatitis? Giardia? or Deadly malaria?
Not that easy to tell, at least in the beginning. And if we treat for one thing, we may mask the symptoms of the real thing. So the stakes are high. I've been studying faith and trust in God's provision for us. Job says, "How can we accept good things from God and refuse trouble?"
It's so much harder to reach this 'accept' when your baby is so sick.
So we take things one hour at a time.
Keeping our records,
looking for patterns in fever readings,
trusting that the answer will be obvious soon.
Then this morning she woke up
and ate breakfast like nothing ever happened.
Like she didn't spend the past two days
groaning and puking on the couch.
We hum
and play
and look well this morning.
But morning is usually best for her.
Malaria can come in cycles.
Is this the eye of the storm?
Or is this recovery?
It's anybody's guess.
It's hard not to remember the hundreds of kids fighting for their lives right now in overcrowded bush hospitals.
An epidemic of deadly malaria.
For now, I'm thoroughly enjoying her 5-year-old jokes!
And keeping the thermometer and treatment meds in my back pocket.
A wise friend advised me that when Anna turned 3, she would begin the 'Why?' stage. Why do you cut carrots? Why do we use forks? Why do I have to wear that? Why do we eat vegetables? Why? Why? Why?! I really tried not to resort to 'Because I said so.' Thankfully the 'Why?' stage was scattered with cute hilarious toddler quotes that kept us laughing, as they tried to conceptualize a complex world.
It occured to me this week that we have switched gears. We are no longer asked 'Why?' about everything (and sadly most of the mixed up kid quotes are past as well). We are in the 'What does it mean?' stage now...
This past week I can remember:
What does 'outrageous' mean?
Mom, what does 'sacrifice' mean?
What does 'defraud' mean?
What does 'monopoly' mean?
At this rate, we won't have to do much cramming for SAT words!
On second thought, James recently said, "Do I know lots of words?"
Now you've had all the best ones from Sunday. I'll need to dig out some other good ones! In other news, today Anna officially finishes preschool, Joel finishes Second Grade, and James finishes Third Grade.
Part of me feels next year with a 4th grader will be the beginning of 'real academics'. It will also be the first year James has a long-distance 'real teacher' and 'real transcript'. Bring it on! We're ready. That is, if we can keep our brains from melting over the summer...
Rodentia.
Okay, according to wikipedia bats aren't rodents. But rats and bats sure seem to be in the same family to me. We'll climb the family tree and call them all mammals.
Bats live in our attic, correction, bats live in almost every attic here. They scamper about the midnight skies eating delicious mosquitoes all night. This would work well if it weren't for two facts:
1) The mosquitoes ate us first at dusk.
and
2) They can be clumsy getting out of bed (and therefore flop all over my ceilings).
There have only been 2-3 times where they got into the house, (WALKED ACROSS THE FLOOR! - I really didn't want to know they could walk in a sneaky little rodentia way), and other than noise we have coexisted quite happily for over 3 years.
Then there's rats.
Rats are worse because they don't eat bugs, they eat your food.
And the labels on your canned goods.
And the tinfoil you were saving for art projects.
And the dog food.
And your clean clothes.
And the Diet Coke.
And the fruit juice you thought was in fool proof containers.
And the wire screens covering your windows.
And the bars of laundry soap for next week.
And the Tupperware you thought was rat-proof.
Insert just about anything....
Those big little teeth?
They can chew it!
We have been trying to evict Famille Rat from our back porch this week. My bed is next door. Did you know that rats can screech? I didn't. Well they can. I imagine the rats from Ratatouille whistling the signal to their 200 cousins to rush to a new food source. Maybe it's code.
In the middle of the night the mosquitoes hum in my ear (after sneaking under the net somehow), while the bats flap on the ceiling overhead, while the rat screeches out directions to the best snack on the porch. Add a mosque next door, overnight worship service down the street, and the occasional thunder and lightning, and you have yourself a hellish midnight orchestra. All these noises align every 50 nights or so to prevent rest of any kind.
No ZZZs for me!
Thankfully, the other 49 nights keep me going.
After finishing this last week with tears, and after further reflection, I realized there was something more.
More to say.
More to chew on.
When my Maasai friend hadn't seen someone in months, he 'greets' for a LONG time. He 'chews the news'. So join me in chewing on some thoughts...
Yes, I dread moving again. Ironic for a missionary. I lost track after 15 moves... It's pure selfishness. Moving takes so much work. Not just physical lifting of boxes. It's the months of goodbyes and hellos, the emotional work of moving that exhausts me.
I used to think it would get easier.
But it doesn't.
Talk to any veteran missionary who has lived in tens of countries.
They will confirm that moving doesn't get easier.
That's not part of the deal.
Stability and familiarity are sacrificed.
Amy Charmichael often writes on themes of sacrifice. [Check out her life if you haven't already.] Her poem 'Hast Thou No Scar?' hit me like a ton of bricks, especially this line:
"pierced are the feet that follow Me."
Last week as I 'chewed' on sacrifice, this post came to my mailbox. Impeccable timing really. Hard things are good. Good for us like medicine.
Ann writes: The surrendered accept that pain is always but growing pains. And growth is always a gift — even when trials are the tutor.
Wait! Doesn't that mean that pain is essentially a gift?
I could spend a decade trying to wrap my mind around James 1:2
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds..."
Pure joy? Trials?!
It's the paradoxes, the puzzles, in Scripture that make me fascinated, curiously digging for how that WORKS. Then falling on my face in awe, because I will never fully uncover the whole of it. God's ways are so much higher than I can grasp.
During a dark season in my life this song was produced by Indelible Grace, using the words of John Newton from 1779. It is not fast, but the words require reflection. Note: The end is the best, but it won't make much sense if you don't go through each verse in order.
Those were dark days for me, but God used them greatly and I wouldn't trade them to go back to where I started out. I needed to go through them to get to today, and I am truly thankful for the difficult things (at least in retrospect).
So how are trials a cause for pure joy? Knowing they grow us should be cause for joy. But even when I can't see or even imagine ahead to the good, I can remember that I follow in the footsteps of wounded feet.
The scars and sacrifices are gifts of devotion. When something hurts. When my kids bear the wounds of moving away from friend after friend. When my wedding momentos are lost by the airline. When we get tropical illnesses that may never heal. When we can't attend a family funeral. Life hurts.
I imagine boxing up all this pain. The pain of what is missing. I box it up carefully tucking it in, put a pretty ribbon on top, and lay it at my Savior's feet. Lord this hurts, but I have given it up for You. Please accept this gift. Gifts worth giving have to cost you something, right?
Honestly, I recognize the grief and grit of moving across the world over and over are not among the most painful things on earth. It's not cancer or violence. My gift looks small compared to others.
But you don't have to have the biggest gift at the party to give one.
That old familiar friend stopped by this afternoon.
Nostalgia visits often, but particularly around landmark events.
Next week is the end of this school year. Ah, how much we have all learned.
The end of this school year marks the end of me teaching a preschooler (I always dreaded the preschool years - I so enjoy the thinking of ages 8, 9 and 10. So after more than 6 years of preschoolers around, what will I miss ?) Ah, these years were so much more fun than I feared.
It also marks the end of our last full school year in one place for a while. Next year is another 'on the road' year. Ah, this peace has been good.
So many milestones. The inches gained. The words written, rehearsed and practiced again. And sometimes still misspelled. Oh how it's hard to watch them struggle. Oh, what a joy when they succeed.
As the home manager, it will take me months to emotionally and physically move out of this house by the end of this year. We will have lived here almost 4 consecutive years! This is the longest we have ever lived anywhere. And it feels more our home than any place we have ever lived. And I don't mean 'our home' only because we did all the ceilings, wiring, plumbing and tiling ourselves. . .
Our home rich in memories. Our home with tropical bugs flying through, dust piling up everywhere, visitors chatting on the porch, a gorgeous garden, swing in the tree, socks lost under the couch and children growing up. Their height scrawled on the hallway corner: Mom, how tall am I now? Their favorite nooks and crannies for curling up with a book. These things don't pack well.
But Time, he doesn't wait around. There is always some end or beginning around the corner. And I don't want to spend today on tomorrow.
Anyway, Nostalgia and I aren't quite ready to treasure up all these fabulous memories and move on. The pain is fresh.
365 days ago the specialist looked us in the eyes, and said the words that would echo through our past and future. Like a snapshot it seemed that time stood still.
"qualifies for a diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome"
365 days ago we got confirmation of what we suspected (or was it 'feared'?).
365 days ago marked the beginning of our quest; a quest for knowledge that would require all the strength and energy we could muster.
Like the beginning of a quest to climb Himalayan peaks.
We found maps.
We bought every guidebook.
We read reviews, testimonials and blog after blog.
We sought out testing, doctors, specialists, therapists.
365 days of putting one foot in front of the other.
365 days of climbing one of the highest peaks we ever attempted.
We learned.
We stretched.
We re-learned.
We gained ground.
365 days of just plain hard.
365 days hailing victory after victory.
In this one tiny slice of time, God has shown us in His mercy what is good. He has guided us to truth and restored many things in James' body.
365 days ago, James had very little auditory processing. Today he has no difficulty whatsoever.
365 days ago, he avoided hugs and eye contact. Today he initiates both daily.
365 days ago, he was itchy with eczema all over. Today it is 95% gone.
365 days ago, he had meltdowns without rigid routines/schedules. Today he is happy to make it up as he goes along.
I cannot list them all. Like the melting of a glacier, these small (nearly invisible) victories have been won inch by inch.
Click HERE to read back over his journey this year.
Dripping, dripping, the obstacles melt away.
I almost forget where they were.
We are praising God today for the hard-won empty spaces.
We enjoyed a lovely Easter filled with friends and fellowship this year. Katie, our teacher, was here to enjoy it with us, and we had a big goat roast with some of our best Congolese friends. We got to sing Good Friday hymns with other expats and held an Easter egg hunt in our yard that the puppies were sad to miss. Kim got to sing with the Mamas choir the whole story of Easter in Swahili - Amefufuka!! (He is Risen!)
