Clean Wounds

Our time in Colorado at the DAR program with MTI was not a waste of time for our family. It was a training/debriefing program and we walk away from it so thankful for the safe place to process, but it also feels like our hearts are bleeding. I am reminded of a talk Jon heard about a year ago after there was some traumatic transition with families unexpectedly leaving the field. Two women spoke of how they wanted “clean wounds” and often our wounds can heal, but if not actively inviting God to do the painful process of debridement, we end up with oozy wounds or ugly scars. 

Once again, we are reminded to ask God, as Good, Good Father to be so very near. 

A side-by-side in the same airport, two years apart. 

“Sleeping on the plane”. When the girls think of airplanes, it makes them tired. ;)

We had the hilariously, most delayed, chaotic flight schedule we have ever experienced domestically. Thankfully, even while waiting for hours on runways, our spirits were up. 

Waiting for a shuttle at 3:30 in the morning. 

Poor Tiger baby had a bad cold a bit before we left that only got worse. I took the girls to Whit’s End at Focus on the Family while Jon walked Tiger to an Urgent Care beside our hotel.

Sick babies are so, so sad. Especially when we are all planning on sleeping in the same room for 8 nights in a row. Thankfully, it is just a nasty virus and I think it is almost gone.

Putting on a play for me about forgiveness at Whit’s End.

We found Tamika! (A character in Adventures in Odyssey)

And had a happy baby again!

We stayed at a lodge with a beautiful view of Pike’s Peak, although I never took a picture when the clouds were lifted. It will live on in memory. 

The girls loved “Aunt Sandy”, who helped them through a lot of emotional processing.

And the hot tubs!

I am relatively certain Tiger didn’t get put down the entire time he was in kid’s program. 

So thankful for this time of growing and sharing. 

Jon is off to Ethiopia now and the girls, Tiger and I send him off as our representative. We miss him dearly but are so glad he can go and visit community, work on the sawmill (along with his dad and a friend from the church he grew up in) and eventually attend meetings in Addis Ababa. So, we take the 12 days of his planned absence and I’m giving myself a pep talk. :)

Feeling It

I’m not a huge resolutions girl, but I have been contemplating 2016 and for the first time, feeling excited about 2017. Mentally maybe I needed to get through Christmas and now we are into January, the month where our family travels to Colorado for a debrief and some training and when we get back, Jon travels to Ethiopia, I am a bit too pregnant to do the international flight but am so glad he can go. He really wanted to take the girls and they badly wanted to go; however, for various reasons, they will stay in the USA with me. 

A few days ago, I was watching ‘A' bounce away on a trampoline, Without looking at me, she exclaimed, “Mama, I regret ever telling you I wanted to come to America because I didn’t know you weren’t going to let me go back to Ethiopia.” As you all know, it has been much longer in the USA than we planned for and it has been a blessing, though also taken a toll on all of us, but Jon and I know the logistics, have talked it through with leadership and we sincerely hope we can go back to live among the Awi in May. It’s just hard to get that all when you are 7. They have also loved their time in America, her statement just illustrates her pull between two places as "home.” 

Yesterday, it was a mental shift in my mind, and for the first time,  I have a sudden desire to not block out all of the change and whirling around me but allow myself to feel it and pray through it in a deep way.  A book I am reading has convicted me I am “slogging” through life, trying to get a to-do list done and not handling interruptions from my kids with much grace. We’ll see how this all comes together in the next week as I am packing and preparing for our CO trip in the midst of teaching the girls. 

Glad for this part of my goofy team…

And this teammate melt my heart. He is five-months-old, too little to play in the snow so he stays inside and we keep warm. He has such a personality with loads to tell us but most of his chatter sounds a lot like, “dadadadadada” though he has done a few “mamamamamama” too. (And he said mama first if anyone is keeping track). :)