-
house cleaning and sacrifice (an ode to my girlfriends in south asia).
It is truly impossible to explain what day-to-day life was like in our particular corner of South Asia. I might as well be a million miles away rather than several thousand, for all the difference between that world and my life here. I look around my American surroundings and search for similes to give inquiring friends, but find none. So often, for lack of good descriptive words, my entire eighteen-month “South Asia life” is pushed to that same-titled compartment in my memory, and days go by in which whole swaths of my life there are un-talked about, un-thought of. The gap is too wide and my brain hurts from…
-
we need prayer.
The past two days were a little nightmarish. David got sick Friday morning, and I followed on Friday afternoon. Not sure how it happened that we both got so sick almost simultaneously with differing things. But by Friday night we were each laying on a sofa, shivering with fevers, nauseated, and achey. Throughout Friday night I was rushing to the bathroom and blacking out almost every time I got up. We talked on the Vonage phone with company doctors, and they urged me to get to the hospital. I can’t describe the dread I have of South Asian hospitals right now (no, they are not all bad; yes, I’m probably…
-
when life is heavy and hard to take.
Last night was our last city church Bible Study before we leave. I know one of the big questions in your mind is probably: What about the city church? Well, it’s one of our big questions too. Just one of the questions, believe me. And about that, I’ll stop and say: I had an epiphany today. It is that, if I am going to survive these last 9 days–and maybe even the month or two after this–I have to live in the little moments. It’s the big picture, the big, big questions of our life right now, that drive me to panic or to depression. Or both. But if I just focus on…
-
mother’s day, take two.
“What more could a mom ask for?” A mom could ask to be able to take her son to swim lessons each morning. A mom could ask to come home and open the books and teach from the homeschool curriculum she’s so excited about. A mom could ask to not set her kids up at the breakfast table with cereal and then crawl back into bed. A mom could ask to wait on and pamper their daddy after his surgery. A mom could ask to play hide and seek and have a tea party and read books. A mom could ask to be the ones to take her kids to…
-
monday.
The boys are home safe and sound, and we hit the ground running today: 1. We started school! David and I sat down last night to have a look at Week One (there is really almost zero prep work . . . everything is planned out for you), then this morning, after swim class, we gathered in the school room for our first day. It was brief and simple and involved mostly reading books aloud, and my heart just melted watching David cuddled in the Reading Corner with our kids. 2. Priya came back to us after a week off, and boy, am I ever happy! 3. David had his…
-
april first.
It is the first day of April, and I am sick. You know what? On the first day of March, I was sick. My sinus infections still pop up monthly, more regular than PMS it seems. So here I am, at the start of another month, trying to hold off until the last possible minute to buy the Dreaded Antibiotics. This is a difficult place to be in. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I have taken antibiotics almost every single one of the seventeen months I’ve lived in South Asia. And, on top of that, I pick up a random GI virus almost as often. You’d…
-
15 months.
I’m celebrating 15 months with my faithful companion. And with a blog post, of course. It’s moving on towards the end of February, and, in true South Asia-fashion, it’s getting hot. I can say things like, “in true South Asia-fashion,” because this is the second February I’ve spent in this country. That’s long enough to experience a full year of seasons in a place. To begin to wrap my head around the unfamiliar rhythms of a April-May summer vacation, the need to eat as many mangoes as possible in May and June while they’re at their peak, and what “monsoon season” means in our part of the country. I can…
-
the wrestling.
The kids and I walked the half-mile to our neighborhood park this morning. It was a perfect day: not a cloud in the sky. Warm in the sun, chilly in the shade. Judah and Amie love to roam in the park. They usually by-pass the paint-chipped playground in favor of the walking path, where they can explore gnarled banyan trees and trash heaps and point out squirrels, birds and rats of all sizes. They pick up sticks and ruffle through the leaves and make themselves busy. And I like to find a bench in a patch of sun and just sit and be. Today I breathe deep and look around…
-
my grandfather.
Yesterday my mom’s dad, whom we affectionately call Granddaddy, went home to be with Jesus. Today I am thankful that he died peacefully, with his family around him singing hymns. I’m thankful that he is no longer in pain. I am thankful for our amazing family, who has cared for him so well in these last weeks, taking off work, traveling from near and far to sit and keep watch with him in his last days. I am thankful for the sweet, gentle spirit that he’s had my whole life, and that up to the end he regularly thanked and was a delight to his care-takers in the assisted living…
-
one year.
I realized with a start today that our one year anniversary came and went without notice. November 21st marked the end of our first year of living here in South Asia. Can you believe it? I have to be honest with you: there were a couple of moments in these twelve months where I thought we might not last a whole year. But God is faithful. And here we are. Many people told us, “The first year is the worst.” And so, even though there are good memories too, I am very relieved to have it behind me, like the closed chapter of a book. Now, I think I’m coming…