Going home...

A colleague of ours (that would be Brandon) asked today if I would be blogging on our transition back to the US for our stateside assignment. We arrive in Nashville on July 6. His question got me thinking. It's not a bad idea. What are the things that will be hard? What will I miss? What will I NOT miss? What are the spiritual implications of such a move?

I guess the most obvious thing that we are praying about during this next month is actually the same thing we were praying hard about four years ago: our kids. We begged the Father to watch over our kids and give them ease with the language and good teachers and dear friends and fun activities. We prayed for good health and happy days.

And He answered.

Now, we're praying for our kids leaving their good teachers and good friends, their fun activities and the life they've become accustomed to. Rachel has sweet girls that she is very close to and she loves her school. Jeffrey was sad yesterday as he went to his last fencing practice. Daniel doesn't really understand that he won't be seeing Marie or Vincent or Marine next year. He loves his teacher and his school. For all its difficulties, this is life as my children know it.

Next month means wonderful reunions with grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins and friends from church. It will be great. But everyone's different now. It's four years later.

Next month means a new school with new teachers and a really different system. It means staying at school all day with no two hour lunch break and going to school on Wednesday.

Next month means American football and baseball and TV. Next month means Sunday School and youth group and GAs and RAs and choir. It also means church several days a week.

Next month means big changes. If anything is weighing on our hearts and prayer lives right now, that's it.

Thanks for listening.