Celebrate Now

I can identify many traits of the Third Culture Kid or TCK within The Littles.

To read a great, succinct article about TCK’s, click here.

They are faced with the many blessings and also burdens at living outside of their passport culture. A road ripe with rich experiences but also some significant hurdles.

Many TCK’s learn to really live life in the present as it is one transition after another. It seems like a continual goodbye for them...

They have grieved more than some adults maybe have to grieve in their entire lives.

But they also have a continual hello and after the initial shyness, I see a determined enjoyment of the friend. 

One day I came into our main room to discover the girls drawing a travel plan all over the world map. 

And they know how to live up the moments.

When Travis, a friend from Addis, visited while his wife and baby were in the USA, the girls warmed up in about one second and then made sure to include him on everything, teaching him really important things, like jumping jacks.

And they still don’t like goodbyes, but they are getting better at it. The Littles seem to understand that though it’s hard to say goodbye to good things, we get to say hello to other good things.

And when Ingla, a friend from Sweden, who was our neighbor in Addis, came for a visit with her mom, I realized how much these TCK’s know how to celebrate in that moment. Ingla’s birthday is in two weeks. After they realized they wouldn’t be together for the day of the birthday, the trio begged to have a birthday party on the only night she was staying. 

I have learned much from them on grief but now I am also learning on how to joyfully live it up.

And then we hiked up our hill and took our obligatory mountain shot. :)

The Littles said, “Let’s sit and enjoy the view”.