The Long Good-bye, Part 11

I told you that these posts would be more frequent.

Today, was our first serious packing day! My stress-level has gone down significantly. I guess there’s nothing like actually doing the thing that is causing the tension to build-up. So, now our home has turned the corner from being normal to crazy chaos. There are trunks full of stuff to sell on the porch. There are empty trucks inside waiting to be meticulously packed (by Bryan mostly, he’s the KING of packing). Our living room is the gathering area for our State-bound items. Owen nearly drove me insane today asking if the Resurrection Eggs were going to America. “Mommy? We takin’ the eggs?” “Yes, Owen. The eggs are going with us to America.” Imagine that conversation times a million.

Why are we packing now when we aren’t leaving until May? Well, we have this brilliant plan to have our PRCC visitors take back up to 12 trunks for us at the end of their trip. They leave on March 18th! Only a few week from now. Our goal is take only 4 trunks with us as we leave Togo. We are stopping by Switzerland to visit Bryan’s brother, Andy and his wife, Yannick and children on our way “home”. Our home is going to be very bare during April.

Even though packing consumed most of my day I managed to sneak in some Internet time to check out the Oscar fashions. I think my favorites were Jennifer Garner’s black dress and Cate Blanchett’s fabulous purple dress. I only wish I looked that great pregnant! What were your favorites?

The Long Good-bye, Part 10

When I decided to blog about our departure from the mission field I wanted to give my readers an honest and personal look at what a person might go through during a major transition like this.  I am a strong believer in sharing my life journey with others in hopes that God will the glorified.  I also wanted to have a place to process and record my thoughts for my benefit.  However, now that our departure date is drawing near I find that my thoughts are piling up in my mind and my emotions are becoming increasingly jumbled.  I am finding it hard to stay true to my initial purposes in blogging.  (Mostly the honesty part.) After praying through this dilemma over the past few days I feel confirmed in plowing ahead with this little blogging series - ugly stuff included.  So, consider yourself forewarned.

I’m tired of Togo.  I am ready to see my family.  I am ready to meet my new niece and nephews.  I am really sad about leaving our family pet, Charger.  I feel anxious about getting rid of all of our stuff.  I am tired of our stuff.  I am tired of dirt.  I want to talk, talk, talk about leaving.  I want to be left alone.  I want to leave for the US tomorrow and have this difficult process behind me.  I want to announce at our next team devo that we really aren’t leaving Togo after all.  I am excited about the possibility of taking art classes this fall.  I am scared to death that I’ll hate it.  I am eager for my children to make friends in the States.  I am concerned about the American pace of life.  I am thinking a lot about what Bryan and I will do for a living. (He’s thinking about it even more than I am!) I am hoping that I won’t have to work next year so that Owen and I can spend one final year together at home before he starts kindergarten.  I’m tired of Togo.

Alone

I experienced a rare treat this past weekend - solitude. Bryan, his brothers and my boys all went on a safari for 3 days/2 nights. I had the house entirely to myself. The best part of the alone time was thinking. I was able to really think through many things and pray over them. It was a much needed break. Now, I’m happy to have the house full of noise and sweating boys again.

Roller-coaster

Roller-coasters can be fun, but the one I’ve been on this week has been a little too “extreme” for my taste.

The lows…

On our trip to Lome on Sunday, Bryan hit a motorcycle with two men on it with our truck. We were driving on the national highway when the motorcycle driver decided to cross the road without looking first. Bryan honked the horn and slammed on the brakes, but was unable to avoid rear-ending the bike. The passenger flew backwards and his head slammed into our windshield. The driver hit the asphalt. The seconds that followed were terrifying since we didn’t know the extent of their injuries. We took them to a local hospital and waited around for 3 hours until the doctor checked them out. Thankfully, God protected them (and us) and they only had minor injuries. We paid for their medical bills and gave them some cash to help repair the motorcycle.

Because of the accident our visit to Tabligbo and Lome didn’t go according to plan (obviously) which caused us a lot of stress. (Read: arguments and bad parenting)

The highs…

An encouraging visit with the Crowson & Koonce families in Tabligbo.

Bryan’s brothers, Andy and Ben, are here! They are a joy to have around plus they brought us a lot of goodies!

Bryan gave me an ipod nano for Valentine’s Day!!! I am thrilled. I drifted off to sleep listening to Coldplay last night.

The school Valentine’s Day party! There’s nothing like handmade valentine cards from children to brighten the day.

I am thankful for God’s presence in all of these situations, especially the scary ones!

The Long Good-bye, Part 9

One hundred days until our departure from Togo. One hundred days. In some ways that sounds like a lot, but I know better. I know they will fly past - full of activity and emotions.

On Monday, our teammates watched our boys (all-day!) in order for Bryan and I to sit down and have a nice long discussion and planning session concerning our move. First off, we brainstormed all that we needed to talk about. Then, we set about systematically talking about them. (Very business-like don’t you think?) Next, we began to tackle the high priority items on our lists. Right now those are determining what items to sell, give-away, or take to the US and then pricing them, etc. Not fun “to-dos” to my way of thinking. I am very tempted to just set everything out on the road and not think of it again knowing that my neighbors will put it all to good use. (Can you tell I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed?)

I just read over the other posts in The Long Good-bye series and I noticed that I haven’t given many details on exactly what we will be doing in America or where we will be living up to this point. There’s a reason for the silence, we haven’t known until recently what the answers are and the answers are still incomplete! I’ll share what I do know. We are planning to live in Dallas until the end of the year. We will worship with Preston Road CofC, our sponsoring congregation, and share with them our experiences in Togo. After that, we aren’t sure where God is leading our family. We have some ideas and dreams, but nothing has become concrete yet. Please keep these plans in your prayers. Blessings to you!

Blessings

Giving and receiving blessings has been a recurring theme recently in my life. I wanted to share with you some of the blessings too! Please visit my teammates’ blogs- Matt and Brett- to learn about a trip to Mandouri, Togo to offer food for famine relief. I don’t want to share too much here, but it’s worth your time to read how God has worked there.
The other blessing might seem a bit silly to some of you, but not to any of us here in Togo! Bryan and Brett went to Burkina Faso a few days ago to take care of some business and returned with a bounty of strawberries, broccoli and cauliflower. I spent the morning sanitizing, rinsing, cutting, storing and eating the produce. Yummy! So, if any of you have any to-die-for strawberry recipes…pass them along!

I pray that your eyes will be open to God’s blessings that surround you!

Good Morning?

Our neighbors, the Pentacostals, are having a revival. Last night, they spoke in tongues and sang in tongues and shouted in tongues until 4am. The noise prompted Graham to wake and join me in the bedroom at 2:30am. This morning as we both complained about the lack of a good night’s sleep he said, “Mom, don’t they understand that they don’t need to talk so loud for God to hear them?” Well said son.