Pushing Pause

   I don't know if I've said it here, but I've said it a lot to others in conversation.  Contrary to what I thought, I really didn't know what this lifestyle would be like.  Yes, we get to see friends (such an encouragement to our hearts, and hopefully we can in part encourage theirs).  Yes, we get to see a lot of different places... usually from the window of the RV while we drive by.  But I'm swimming in desk work to do. Ellie's homeschooling is woefully behind.  I think I thought that missionaries were busy on Sundays and could spend a few hours over coffee writing thank you notes on Monday, then the rest of the week was free for traveling to the next place. I didn't think of all the friends and team partners that missionaries know and want to connect with in between.  And all the rest of what entails their life.

   I've learned that one "missionary presentation" doesn't 'fit all' (in terms of time parameters, audience, and level of connection to our family or the country where we are going), and it's constantly being 'tweaked'.  I actually had a dream night before last that we were HECKLED in a church.  Sounds silly now, but it was very awkward in my dream! ;-) As much as we've done this now, there are still some nerves.

   I still have to do laundry, shop for groceries, make beds, and clean (albeit, the RV is much smaller than a house). Unfortunately, I still don't make room in my schedule for this, and sometimes feel like Ellie and Reni -- while sleeping mere feet from us -- get our leftovers while we're tired (physically and emotionally), trying to juggle all of our different responsibilities.  We're constantly introducing them to people they don't know, they make new little friends for a few hours, then have to say 'goodbye'. On the upside, they play with an amazing array of different toy collections at nearly every home and church we visit. But no two days are the same, and I'm waiting for them to finally melt down from the lack of structure to their life.  I really believe the RV has been a huge lifesaver in that regard -- it's been a consistent environment, even when everything outside of it is constantly changing.

   Actually, I think it's a lack of structure that perhaps makes this lifestyle more challenging for me too.  I recently took a personality test that was designed to reveal what kind of environments are best for me to work in, and my best 'management' style, of sorts. I learned that this season of life has pushed me WAY on to the dynamic side of the scale (where I usually am more comfortable sitting on the 'structured' end). Yet in spite of all of this stretching, we sense amazing grace and provision from God and from His people.  We've learned so much and I can't help but believe that this is valuable preparation.

Last week we had an hour to kill before a supper appointment and decided to stop at a park in Nathan's hometown that I had always wanted to visit, but never had time for before.  Reni was super excited about all of the "flowers" on the ground.

Yes. That's dandelion 'dander' in his hair and on his shirt.

I'm actually able to find the time for this post because we were gifted two more days in Kentucky before heading home to Illinois (actually, both places feel like home). It feels like life has hit 'pause.' Reni goes into Shriners in a couple of hours to be casted (they didn't have the right size of liner in stock to perform the casting during our visit on Tuesday) for a set of "stubbies" -- Yay!  We hit the interstate again tomorrow, but this time we drive familiar roads, where we know the exits and interchanges as we go HOME.  Right now, the 'familiar' is good.  Really good.