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First Looks, First Days: Traveling

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We've landed in Albania! And only one bag was delayed. :) (The team still declared it a miracle that ALL of our 28 bags were 50.0 lbs or under at the airport and 27 out of 28 bags arrived on time.)  Things we discovered while traveling: there is a Lego vending machine at the Cincinnati airport.  A few days before leaving, some of our supporters, who had raised their kids on the field so they get it, handed us some cash and said, "Do something extravagantly fun for your kids with it." Unfortunately, we didn't have time to ride roller coasters or visit the aquarium or anything like that. But there was a Lego Vending machine by our gate at the Cincinnati Airport! And that felt plenty extravagant. :) When we told our kids that a supporter had given money just for something fun for them, they gasped and ran to the Vending machine. They had the best time choosing their Legos and watching the machine click, clack and deliver the box. It also kept the entertained when they wo...
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Our dead roses

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 When we moved into our house, almost 4 years ago, we "inherited" an immense amount of immaculate landscaping. Apparently, according to the neighbors, the family who lived here had one adult child and the mom used to spend 2-3 hours a day in the yard, planting, tending and maintaining all the amazing-ness that was her garden. We have 3 young children, lots of neighbors who come to play, and a mom who does not have 2-3 hours a day to spend planting, tending and maintaining the garden. Maintaining the laundry, perhaps, but not the garden. So our grass has worn thin in a few spots, particularly where the trampoline used to sit. The yard has randomly dug holes that fill when it rains and become much loved mud puddles. The "orchard" in the back has lost apple trees due to wind storms, lack of pruning and general enthusiasm for tree climbing, even when you've been told a hundredy-million times that those trees are too young to climb. (But mom! The old trees are too ta...
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A place called Home

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 I was standing in Drinklings, one of our local coffee shops the other day... a shop where I don't have to say "Oat milk, please" because they know me well enough to know about my food allergy... a shop where they ask me if everything is okay if I order tea instead of coffee because they know my normal preferences... a shop where they ask if I want a "real cup" when I'm by myself but they don't even bother when I've got the kids with me because they know I need a to-go cup with a lid just in case somebody hits my drink with a stray elbow. I was standing there, waiting for my Lavender Oat milk Latte, when I looked down at the "frequent customer punch card." And I realized, in the very near future, I will have a half-filled punch card that doesn't get redeemed. When we leave Wilmore in a few months (prayerfully and Lord willing), I will probably have a half-full card still in my wallet that I won't be able to use since I don't kno...
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My Relationship with Valentine's Day: it's complicated

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Let me start this post by saying that I have a complicated relationship with Valentine's Day.  Growing up, there were the class parties and candy and cookies and Conversation Hearts (my favorite candy only available one time of year.) And then junior high... when I was the perpetual "single girl courier" of our friend group who got the "Hey, will you give this rose/carnation/tiny stuffed animal to so-and-so when you see her in class?" High school was pretty much the same. Still single. Still lots of attached friends. But this time, they could meet each other between classes and I didn't have to deliver quite so many things.  By college, I was determined to own my singleness so I would invite all the single girls/girls-whose-Valentine-lived-too-far-away over for dinner and a movie on Valentine's Day night. (It was Galentine's before Galentine's was a thing.)  When I lived in Tanzania, Valentine's wasn't a thing and I was free of it for a f...
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Hey, how are you? Weird.

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When people ask us this question these days... Hey, how are you?... The only answer we can possible give is, "Weird. We're weird right now." Transition is weird. Last-holidays-again are weird. Fundraising is weird.  And the weird-ness started for us last summer. It's the reason I haven't posted an update about us for awhile. I actually wrote this post last November but then Hubby felt like we weren't really ready to post it. Now, we are. So here you go. The blogpost I tried to post a few months ago...  I've tried to figure out how to write this blog for awhile now. I wanted to catch everybody up on the summer that we had. But it was a LONG summer... and it wasn't filled with happy/do-all-the-last-things-in-Wilmore like we wanted. Instead, the grief and loss of May just kept going. Interspersed, there were moments of joy and laughter and visiting with old friends. But it felt like, right around the corner, there was always another big pit waiting for us...
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