This trip, we intentionally worked with The Littles on saying healthy goodbyes. As we prepare to leave for Ethiopia, we research materials on how to say goodbye in a way to help your kiddos grieve and transition. Reading through some of this literature, I realized how poor I am at saying a healthy goodbye. I would rather sneak out in the night to avoid the farewell but we are learning, to move on, we have to walk right through the pain.
In so many ways, God has shown me the importance of this and I am convicted of how poorly I handled my goodbyes with my Mexican family 5 years ago when I moved back to the Midwest to marry Jon. I couldn’t process my painful emotions and so I stuffed them and focused on my new life with little regard for who I had left.
This time, returning to Mexico and driving the winding roads through towns, my heart swelled and I told Jon, “do you think that Ethiopia will ever stir this feeling of homecoming in me like Mexico does?”
I don’t honestly know the answer, but I pray it does and God knits the country and people and scenery as tightly to our hearts.
God used our time in Magdalena to be encouraging, connecting, refreshing and unexpectedly, healing.
Day 1
4 comments:
"goodbyes" are hard. glad your mexico time was so meaningful!
that is so awesome. i'd enjoy hearing more about it!
Can totally relate to how you tend to handle goodbyes. I'd way rather slip out the back door and not say bye rather than dealing with the emotion. I'm sure I've hurt people in this process of sparing myself...thanks for sharing.
Very cool that you have that opportunity! For many of my friends (and me) our first country overseas stayed very precious, and no other country ever really felt the same. I'll be interested to know how it works out for you!
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