So Long Ordinary

Well, after more than 30 hours of travel, we've made it.  We're all well, especially after some sleep. Holy jet lag Batman.  When we first got into our apartment, I was cold, overwhelmed, and weepy.  Thank you, Lord for hot showers and five hour "naps."  We're all ready to go now.  Except that it is bedtime and not morning.  Oh, my.

We're here!  Just had our first American breakfast (yum) at the airport in Seattle.  One more flight to Boise and then...sleep!  It's been so amazing to experience American organization, proffessionalism, manners, and convenience again.  Wow.  Culture shock!

We made it to Hong Kong!  Now waiting to check in for our flight to Japan/Seattle. Things are getting progressively colder and more modern.  Love traveling!

Whew! We are all checked in at the airport in Jakarta and waiting for our flight to Hong Kong.  It's 10 p.m. here and we're all a little punchy.  Already.  ;-)  Our flight leaves at midnight.  So far, everything has been smooth sailing so keep praying!  Next stop...Hong kong!

We arrived safely in Jakarta yesterday!  We've been enjoying modern city life and time spent at the guesthouse with other missionaries - making new friends and re-uniting with old ones.   It has been raining pretty much non-stop since we got here and certain areas of Jakarta are flooding.  Please pray that none of this flooding will cause issues with our plans here in the city or our drive back out to the airport to catch our flight to Hong Kong/Seattle/Boise tomorrow night! Here's a photo of the girls in one of the malls here.  Love the Chinese New Year decorations!

The girls and Ester.  Ester is a sweet, shy, quiet little girl from next door.  She's also our helper's daughter, so she comes over almost everyday to play with the girls while her mom works.  On Friday, she just wanted so badly to spend as much time as possible with us, so we brought her with us to the MAF dock to say our good-byes.  All four girls spent the time at the dock playing around in the grass.  (Remember that post of the girls playing in the water a few weeks ago?  This is that same area, now bone-dry.) We're going to miss Ester...and so many other friends here. I'm not going to mention how very much we will miss our MAF family. (okay, guess I just did)   Sniff. Well, what a surreal feeling.  Our house is pretty echo-y.  Since we're having the interior painted while we're gone, I took down all of our pictures and wall hangings.  I also put away breakables and special items that might get damaged just sitting around the house f...

First of all, a huge thank you for all the kind comments on my last post.  I love hearing from you - through comments on this blog, Facebook, emails, phone calls, real life conversations, and the grapevine ! It was a little hard to put such an honest post out there, but you've all encouraged me so much with your words.  Thank you. It feels like ages ago, but it was only a few weeks ago that we took the girls and the dog down to the MAF dock to play in the river.  The river was pretty high, which creates the perfect little shallow pool to play in. We took a lunch and made a picnic of it. Check out that huge log that floated down the river!  It was the perfect place to play. We should totally do this more often.  (Except maybe not take the dog?  This is where she got the water in her ears that started the ear infection that we're still battling!) While the girls played, I sat on the bench and watched the monkeys play - and by monkeys I don't mean kids.  ...

Not a roller coaster.  Just Brooklyn and one of our Indonesian MAF staff taking a quick boat ride at sunset. If there's one thing I've learned, its that life is full of ups and downs, bitters and sweets, incongruities and inconsistencies.  Now multiply that by 1,000 and you have missionary life in a nutshell.  I'm learning to be okay with all the mixed emotions constantly ebbing and flowing in my heart - the longing for other places, the love for where I am, the gut-wrenching loss of time with family, the thrill of new friends becoming like family, the dream of leading a life following hard after Jesus, the tears that come as I count the cost. Right now, I'm a wreck.  Full of emotions that I expected and other emotions that have taken me off guard. I want to go.  Yesterday.  And I also want to... stay ? I absolutely love that we are going "home" to Colorado.  There just aren't words that express the kind of excitement I feel about our upcoming furlough...

Let me catch my breath here.  I'm kinda (very) grossed out. The vet just left and.... s hudder . If you've followed this blog for long, you may have picked up on an unavoidable fact of life in the tropics.  At least for our family, pets have been a decidedly disappointing venture pretty much all 'round. Kittens.  We found some kittens at the dock just after we moved to Palangkaraya.  They were so cute!  (And look how cute and little Paige and Madison were!)  But they ran away pretty quickly. Chickens?  Um, do you mean oversized disgusting vulture birds? They were cute little chicks but we gave them to our helper when they got big and pooped all over our pump house next to our porch where we eat dinner.  Our helper loves them.  She named the mean rooster "Rocky."  We are happy her family can enjoy the eggs. Rabbits?  We  tried the cute little baby bunnies from the pet store.  They all died within days.  Not a fun ordea...

Happy New Year!!! It is finally 2014!  I've been anxiously awaiting this year for a while now, knowing it was our FURLOUGH YEAR.  Our whole family is getting giddier by the minute as we countdown to D-Day (Departure Day).  20 days to go....Eeeeeeehhhhhhh! As I look back on 2013, I'm able to see so many instances where God was with us and working on my heart through the many ups and downs of life here.  It was a good year.  Actually, 2013 was a total success in that I never had to take anybody  to the emergency room!   I welcomed in the New Year with a stomach bug.  It was a doozy, and I had to miss out on the fun party our expat friends were having.  But I'm all better now and it appears nobody else is coming down with whatever it was I had. Even though (or perhaps because) I was so sick, I was up at midnight to welcome in the New Year. Sean, Madison, and Paige all wound up giving in and crawling into bed.  I was asleep in the recliner b...