Everything Here Belonged to Someone Else

If you were to look around my house, you would see many things that belonged to someone else at one point.  And I am not just talking things like my leaf bowl from my Gram or the antique bowl from Noah's Grandma.  I mean things like our fans, our dishes, for crying out loud, our car.

Because we stayed in Costa Rica after language school I was able to buy household goods from people that were leaving for their countries.

That means that my dishes, casserole dishes, the dog bowls, Quinn's crib and some toys we bought from a family that is now serving in El Salavador.  Our living room rug, some storage baskets, two drying racks and a foam mat came from a family that is now in Honduras.  Our dinning room table, our 4Runner, the fridge, stove, bookshelves, kids' table and an random assortment of kids' books are from a family that are now serving in Texas.  One of the boy's scooters is from a family who's now in Paraguay.  Quinn's GoPod we bought from sweet friends who are on their way to Spain.  Some little boys clothes and shoes were bought from friends who are now in Columbia and Uruguay. 

Some of Quinn's cloth diapers were from a family that's now in Panama.  The picture frames and throw blankets? Those used to belong to a family that is now in Peru.  And the list goes on and on.  Oh and get this one, through a course of events that can only happen on the mission field, we now own fans the family that helped us move to Costa Rica owned.  They are in Honduras now, but when they left Costa Rica, they sold them to another language school student.  And when that family left, they sold those fans to us.  Weird I tell ya.

We just bought a cookie cooling rack (I can't tell you how often I am making cookies here, people go nuts over them!) from a family headed to, get this, Holland, MI!! Yeah, weird huh?

It's sorta strange to look around my house and know who used these things before me.  I mean, I have always been an avid goodwill shopper, but most likely you don't know who had the stuff before you did.  But now, I know these people.

Some days, this can be a hard thing.  Sort of a constant reminder they aren't here. I miss the conversations we had with these people about life, kids, God, missions, the crazy language mistakes we all made.  But most days, this is a good thing.  I remember the fun we had with people, I pray for them, send them a quick note on Facebook. And marvel that we literally know people all over the world!  Crazy!