Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Where are you from?

Adjusting into America should be simple, right? I mean we have been here over four months now, we should be adjusted.  In reality, our world is upside down.  Some days we are all normal, adjusted people, but then there are days when everything is just so strange.  Our youngest doesn't quite understand why anyone would want heat in their house, why soccer jerseys aren't church clothes and if the tap water is safe to drink. Then there are the things that are just plain overwhelming, like choosing what gum, cereal or chips to buy. We find ourselves only shopping the outer rim of a grocery store because the aisles are just too overwhelming.

We dread the question, "Where are you from?"  Where are we from? It is such a good question. Are we from Indiana? That's where we grew up, but our youngest has never lived there. Are we from Pennsylvania, we all have a life there, but again it doesn't hold our most recent memories.  Do we say Guinea Bissau?  Our answer typically reflects how talkative we are feeling at the given moment we are asked; if we say Guinea Bissau, usually a lengthy conversation takes place.  This is all part of re-entry.

Part of our adjusting is allowing room for our Guinea Bissau life to meet up with our new America life.  If I needed to title these pictures I would say, "You can take the kids out of Guinea Bissau, but you can't take the Guinea Bissau out of the kids."

In GB we lived outside and would eat outside.  The kids love getting the opportunity to eat outside again.  

Rice for supper!  How else to eat it but out of a community bowl and outside!

At a friends house they needed to clean catfish, so Lydia was eager to help clean the fish as she was taught in GB. 

While we are no longer serving in Guinea Bissau we still need prayer.  Adjusting back to America has proven to be almost as difficult as adjusting to Guinea Bissau.  Maybe it's because our adjustment is also to a whole new area of living with a new job and new friends.  Whatever we are dealing with though we know one thing that continues to be true...Deus i bon. (God is good.) We serve a faithful God that loves us and cares about each one of our needs.

2 comments:

  1. Thank you Lord that you continue to be sooooo gooodddd to us, even when we do not deserve your goodness, your mercy, your grace! Thank you Lord to be there for us always when we needed! Love you guys! Praying for you! Tank you! lol

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