Moving to Africa...

Is the same, but different.  We said goodbye, or see you later, to our dearest friends and family.  Packed all the things we felt like we needed into 12 suitcases and brought them to the airport.  Argued with the lady at the Delta counter about how many bags we got for free.  Lost.  Asked for our bags back.  Repacked.  Checked 11 bags.  Sent one home with Miranda.  Went only $100 over budget on luggage overage charges.  Yay!  Went through security.  Forgot to unpack all the extra electronics from our carry-ons.  Set off security alerts.  Oops.  Greg went through the full body scanner—he always has to!  Repacked the carry-ons that the security people unpacked.   Sigh.  Got on some stinking long flights and didn’t sleep.  Except for Angelica, who slept all over me (and the random guy on the other side of her).  Got off the plane in Jo’burg.  All five of us, yes even the 6 year old, had to push a luggage cart.  At least SHE slept!  Got picked up at the airport by people we had met once. 

All familiar, but at the same time, all a little bit different.  Kind of like most things in Africa.  The store is familiar, but a little bit different.  So is everything in it.  Roads are the same, but different.  People are the same, but different.  The feelings of being here are the same as always, but different too.  We’ve never lived here before.  Different. 

Here’s a list of a few different things that have happened since we got here:

Julia discovered she is a monkey whisperer.  When she calls monkeys, they come.

Greg had to stop in the road to avoid hitting a cow.

I peed on the side of the road in the long savannah grass. You gotta do what you gotta do!

A man rang our gate bell at 6:00am to ask for work, or food, or money. 

I’ve heard of this thing called Culture Stress.  It’s different than culture shock, because it’s not just the surprise, or even that you don’t like something.  It’s just the overwhelmingness of the “same but different” feeling.  Makes you tired.  Things are harder than they usually are.  Harder than they are at home.  Harder than you want them to be.  We are experiencing this right now.  Tired.  But happy to be figuring things out, slowly, gradually.  It will all come together. 

Stood in worship at HPC Swaziland Sunday morning.  God is here.  At Bible study in my house before my kids wake up in the morning.  God is here.  And so we know, it will all be okay.  Better than okay.  Good, great, a treasure.  All of these experiences are a treasure.  God is making us into who we need to be.  And He needs US to be the same…but different.

As promised, only a little late--MPact Girls' Club!

Mpact Friends Club

We had such a great time tonight.  My girls and I got to share at a girl's church group in Slidell that has adopted our family as their own personal missionaries.  We also got to have dinner with Grace, who's one of my new favorite people!  Love you guys!  I'll try to post a picture tomorrow-but tonight...BED!

Regular Life

I have been thinking a lot lately about how I got here.  I guess I'm being sentimental from knowing I'm moving.  I've been thinking about when I first felt called into ministry.  I was probably not more than 12.  Maybe a little bit younger.  Then I started growing up, and I realized that I didn't want to be in any kind of ministry.  I wanted a "regular life."  I don't know all of what I meant by that, but I'm pretty sure it went along regular lines--a handsome and romantic husband, a big house with all the trimmings, success in whatever job I end up wanting to pursue, and money to do what I want.  I know that part of my definition of "regular" was that God wouldn't ask me to do anything hard or anything that I didn't want to do.  I decided while I was in college I wanted to be a lukewarm Christian, so that God would let me have a "regular" life.  I actually remember the day I made that decision--the decision to follow God halfheartedly, and try to have a "regular life."

Because when I was really with God, I felt like life had to be lived with purpose.  And that's not what I wanted.

Have you ever been there?  With God, our lives are so fraught with purpose!  The crazy thing is that no matter what He has called you to do, it's full of purpose.  He wants you to do it with purpose for Him.  It isn't "regular" because He has purpose in it.  I think back over the time when I was trying to live halfway in God's plan and halfway in "regular."  I wasn't happy or fulfilled.  I was in sin in so many ways that I thought were ok, because I was tuning out the Spirit of God.  "Regular" stank!

As I look around at my life now I think I just needed a new definition of regular.  Regular is what is normal, and for Christians, shouldn't it be normal to do whatever God wants?  This IS regular.  This is not special--it's no big deal to head to Africa.  It is regular!  My definition of regular has to change with what God tells me to do.  Whatever it is, it is my new regular.  And whatever He tells you is your new regular.  Let's all live a regular life!

The Blog is Re-opening

Just a test run on posting to this blog before I actually start back up. We are moving to Africa in 3 weeks and 2 days!

Angie

Soccer

Nicholas had his first soccer game today. It was HOT! But he was a trooper and did such a good job. His team didn't win, but since they haven't even had a practice yet we didn't feel too bad about that, especially since the team they were playing against was bigger and had practiced several times. They had plays--the coach was calling out "Get in your rainbow" and things like that. Well, they had fun and we enjoyed watching. Julia got stung by a bee, though. Ouch! At least now we know she's not allergic!

Miraculous!

A little more than a week ago, Nicholas came to me with a small eczema scab on his arm that he had scratched until it was open. I put medicine on it, and then slapped a bandaid on top to keep him from scratching. Fast forward about 3 days and I noticed his arm was red around the bandaid. So I pulled it off--it was still stuck hard, and he had a first class allergic reaction under there. The original sore had become infected, and every place the bandaid had touched was red, bubbly and full of welts. So we put more medicine on it (an all natural herbal ointment that is anti-biotic and usually works great), and put it on several times a day for a couple of days. The swelling kept going up, so I decided to switch to Hydrocortisone, and we put that on it several times a day for a couple of days. Finally, the swelling was going down with that, but the scabs were getting green oozy stuff around the edges, so I bought Neosporin, and put that on it several times a day for one day. Then we realized that it was spreading, not just further up and down his arm, but into his armpit, onto his belly and groin area, and even down the leg on that side of his body. This was the Saturday night before Labor Day, so we were several days off from seeing a doctor unless we went to the emergency room. We, of course, had been praying for it in a quick general sort of way, but this night when I was putting the medicine on it, Nicholas said, "Hey, mom, why don't we put that oil on it? You know the one dad has for praying for sick people." (Greg got a little vial of anointing oil given to him when he got ordained) So I said sure and got it down and we prayed--really talking to Jesus about it kind of prayed. And that night when he went to bed it was already looking better, and it has steadily improved ever since until tonight it is almost gone! Thanks Jesus!

Bedtime Story

Tonight Angelica asked me to rock her and tell her a bedtime story that I made up. After I was done, my story following all the approved models where there's a princess named Angelica who has funny adventures, she started her story. It was about Princess Mom. The basic plot line: After Princess Mom realizes that she is sad because she has no family, no house, no food, and no brothers and sisters, she goes to find a witch (witches are slowly phasing their way out of stories that she tells, but we're not there yet) to help her. But the witch is bad and tries to eat her, while talking in an amazingly deep voice for a 4 year old. Then after some confusion and a major pity party, Princess Mom meets up with a rabbit who decides to be her pet. But then the rabbit decides not to be her pet, and Princess Mom is bummed. She sits in the woods crying because she's so boring.

Me: She's boring?

Angelica: Yes. She's you.

Me: I'm boring?

Angelica: Yes. (long pause) Not for real. Just in the story.

Me: Oh, ok.

So then Princess Mom's "Mother God-fairy" shows up and gives her a family and a castle and some food. And the "Mother God-fairy" tells her she is ok. And so it ends happily, if suddenly.

Good-night!

Cleaning Out!

I took advantage of my kids being gone for a few days to clean out the toy room. Nicholas caught wind of it coming and put lots of his stuff into his closet to avoid the possibility of its getting thrown away. Unfortunately (from his perspective), I looked into his closet. After much searching, I found the floor! I now have a huge pile of garage sale stuff--all marked, for the garage sale (which is still 2 weeks away)! That feels nice! They get back today--I wonder how long it will look like this?

Play Day!

I've been working for 3 straight days on unpacking, garage sale stuff, sorting, helping at the XA house a little, and all kinds of other things. Tomorrow the kids are leaving for a weekend at Maw-maw and Paw-paw's house. So I decided that today should be a play day--hey, I can work when they're gone, right? So this morning we walked/scootered down the street to one of our friend's house and all walked to the playground. Then after lunch we went to a local hotel and asked how much it would cost to swim, and he let us swim for free-woohoo! Then we stopped for snowballs. It just doesn't get much better than that!

Everyone is doing so good in the water. Nicholas used to be so scared to put his face in, but after his ocean experiences, I guess a pool seems pretty safe. Angelica used to just sit on the steps and play where she could touch even with her floaties on, but now she was jumping in and swimming around without any fussing! And Julia didn't even come close to drowning herself by forgetting and breathing while underwater. :) Life is good!

Just for Fun

This is a hilarious video of Angelica playing the piano in our house in Africa.

Date Night

This weekend our awesome friends Daniel and Brittany offered to watch our kids for us while we went out on a date. We went to Chili's and sat and ate chips and salsa for way too long (at least our waitress thought so!) and then to a late movie. Had so much fun! I have the greatest hubby!

In other news, a superhero named Terrible Slicer (who only slices bad guys) and Cinderella made an appearance at our house this week.

Home Sweet Home

We made it home! It took 30 hours, but we did it! Two airplanes and a 5 hour layover later, followed by a 4 hour drive from Dallas with kids who REALLY needed sleep, (and a mom who did too, to be honest). Now I have to get our house set back up, which should only take a week! Just now, though, I need some lunch!

Packing Extravaganza

So I'm packing suitcases and I've got clothes in stacks all over my bedroom floor--the give away stack, the pack clean stack, the pack dirty stack, the just got back from the laundry I hope it still fits stack. Julia came in and said, "Wow, Mom, your room is messy!" Also, since we had people over last night until 5am to watch the first NFL preseason game of the year, Nicholas's bed is pulled into the middle of our floor so he could sleep better (our room is further back in the house.) What a mess!

12 suitcases! 1 done, 3 started. That leaves 8 untouched...Boo!

Sad Surfing Day

So we were going to do one last surf today, but it didn't work out. We're so bummed. Angelica and I are both sick, though, so that is probably a good thing. But that just means it will be our next trip to Africa before we surf again. Unless we move to Hawaii and become beach bums. It's an idea.

It's Been Two Years

So I decided that I should post on my blog, since I've been enjoying reading other people's blogs so much! Two years into our journey, so much has happened! The girls are doing well, and we have spent this summer in Cape Town, South Africa. So I'm thinking I'm going to start blogging more, since it's a great way for people we love here to keep up with what's going on in our lives. Just a short starter post and a few pics is all today!

One more Picture

Just found this picture of Angelica and I love it, so I'm adding it.

Pictures

I just wanted to put a few new pictures on for anyone who's interested. We're doing great and I can't believe how well things are going. I was so scared at first, but things are just falling into place in a truly miraculous way. Much love, Angie

What! I'm posting on my blog?

Well, I don't know if anyone will ever look at our blog again, after my not posting for 2 months, but I just wanted to reassure anyone that does read this that things are going well. The girls are learning English, everyone feels like real family now. We are all attaching nicely to each other and loving each other more and more. The girls have gotten clean bills of health and Angelica had eye surgery, with the result that she can now see in 3-D and her eyes aren't crossed any more. I'm putting a few pictures on here from when the kids were all playing dress up the other day. Two princesses and an army guy! Lots of fun here! Angie

We're Still Alive

So everyone has probably given up on checking to see if I put anything new, but I'm going to post this anyway. :) We are home. Just over a week now. I've never been so happy to be home in all my life. Everyone is settling in nicely. We have scuffles between the kids of course, but nothing major and we're getting things worked out quicker lately. The girls are working on their English. Julia will start school in a little over a week, and we think that will help her considerably. Everyone seems to be on task for attachment and stuff like that. They are doing great and we'll probably update the blog now about once a week or so. Not more than that though, sitting at the computer is not top on the priority list right now. :) If you want to, you can call me. I'd way rather talk than type! Good times! Angie