Home?

Huh.

Last post over a year ago.  Really??
I guess I have two choices.  A) I can explain away on why this space has been so neglected, but honestly that's kinda boring to write and to read, and I think you all probably get why I have been absent, what with 4 kids and all or  B) I can forge ahead as if nothing happened.

Let's go with B. 

Moving on.

In one month, we'll be climbing aboard a plane again.  Yep, it's come around again, our six month Home Assignment.  Which by the way, we don't like that name.  Home is Costa Rica now.  We started calling it COMA, Country of Origin Assignment.  When we shared that with our pastor, he said, how about we call it COMMA, Country of Origin Mandatory Ministry Assignment.  More pause like and less death like.  Have I mentioned how much we enjoy this guy?

So, we are in that state of upheaval known in the nerdy missionary circles as transition.  And we all enter it and deal with it differently.  I have already started to deal with it, Noah won't deal with it until two weeks after we get to the States.  The kids are all in some state of it.  It gets a little nutty, with six of us. 

Emotions, good and bad, are running close to the surface.  A couple of years ago when we were in Colorado for some debriefing time, we were introduced to the concept of Yuck Ducks and Yeah Ducks.  Get it, a paradox?  So often we want to negate some part of an experience by saying things like "It was really great, but this bad thing happened"  Or "it was awful but this good thing was part of it"  It can be both.  Not just all bad or all good, but a mescla, a mix.  So there are yuck ducks, things that we don't like and yeah ducks, things that are good. 

We are excited and nervous about our time in the US.  Excited to spend time with family and friends, people we love and miss terribly living so far away from them.  Nervous, because well, we don't really fit there any more.  It's been six years since we left the US, Forrest and Elliot were just 4 and 2.  They have lived longer here than they have in the US.  Now we're this weird mix now, not Tico, but not completely from the US either.  (Proof?  That last sentence.  Six years ago I would have written "Not completely from America."  I know better now.  Costa Ricans consider themselves Americans, because they are part of Central America.  And before you blow that off as nonsense, think about it.  I mean really think about it.)

We're also excited for the change of seasons (FALL!!!) but will miss rainy season here.  Excited to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with family!!  But I will so miss our Thanksgiving here with our friends and the fun of Christmas fireworks. We're struggling with leaving friends and church here for half a year, while at the same time we're excited to see friends and spend time at our supporting churches in the States.

So, we're a mashed up mess of Yuck Ducks and Yeah Ducks.  And will be for a while.  It takes a while to get resettled, and just about the time we find a rhythm, we'll go through the upheaval again to come back. 

If you see us in the first month or two, we might be a little messy, especially our kids.  For some of them, this will be the first time they really remember living in the US.  For one of them, this will be her first time living in another country.  Yep, she's little, but you better believe she will go through her own adjustment time.  This baby has never seen wall to wall carpeting! 

For our bigger guys, there will likely be some working through how Tico and how Gringo they are.  It might depend on the day.  Simple questions like "is it good to be home?" can cause all sorts of emotions and in elementary school it can be hard to express how they are a mix of both places.  At this point, they might not even realize how much of a mix they have become.  This six months could bring that out. 

So.  Know we're excited and ready to spend some time in the US.  Know to that while we are there, we're working through our mixed up mess of "we're home, but not home" all at the same time.  Thanks for your grace with us!  And we can't wait to see you all!!