Mom Mamma Mama'

It is a funny thing, time. How it can seem so slow and so fast all in the same moment. As I sit here right now I can hardly comprehend that we have been in Bolivia since June (four months having passed), it seems like we have lived here for years and for days. I cannot seem to wrap my mind around the fact that in 48hrs my husband whom I have not seen in 4 months will be arriving and we will be a family reunited. So much has taken place since we were together and the idea of being together again the 3 of us while exciting and happy is also overwhelming. Sure it will be fantastic to have our family back together, no one would deny that, but these four months apart have been packed full of change, adjustment, growth and transitions and so adding yet another big change is, well, challenging. I say all this because I myself am still processing, and I process best when I write. I am also trying to help Miss. K prepare for yet another big change, and so I feel as though I have been slowly wo...

It is funny the things you miss and the things you forget when living abroad. Just like it is funny how we take some things for granted and make assumptions about necessities. I have been in Bolivia for just  over 2 months and I have not received one piece of mail. No letters from home, no junk mail, no bills, it is not because my family and friends don't love me it is because the postal service in Bolivia shut down. There are rumors of it being open again, and when you look at their website it looks like it is all well and good, but here's the thing...no one cares. I asked my sister in law if she knew if the post office was up and running and she had no idea if it was nor that it had not been. I have seen expats ask online, but Bolivians don't seem to know or care because it seems no one really depends upon the postal service. If  you need to pay your bills then you need to go to the pharmacy, or the bank or the office and pay your bill, if you don't pay then you bes...

Before moving to Rome, Italy I attended a missionary training program through the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA) ReachGlobal. There we were presented with a lot of really valuable training as well as took a lot of time to really get to know ourselves and how we relate to the world, others and God. I wish I could recall all the great information we were given, but alas most has faded with the passing of time. One of the lessons I do recall is that there are 4 stages that everyone experiences when moving cross culturally. We may not all hit each phase at the same time or for the same length of time, but we will all encounter these 4 stages of adjustment; honeymoon, frustration, adjustment, and acceptance. The past few days I knew that I was in the midst of th frustration phase, but even though I knew it I could not shake it. Everything about our new country was annoying to me. The fact that I had just dealt with my second round of stomach issues (i'll spare you the detai...

This week has been rough. I didn't realize how much I was depending on the birthday party planning and shopping to get me through our days here until the party was over. This week the reality of normalcy and life apart from my Love set in. This week was hard. I woke on Monday morning determined to get Kiley and I better focused on God as I knew life had been literally all over the map I sensed the need to regain our center. I reached out to God, to family and friends for help and ideas on how to bring more Christ centered activities into our life here where I can't depend on Play School and Cubbies to help me. It's funny, I grew up going to church and lived in a Christian home with parents who did a great job of raising us with God at the center, I have run Children's Ministry programs and I love God but for some reason I was just feeling like I couldn't engage Miss. K in her personal walk with Jesus. I guess it just goes to show the importance of the Body of C...