As many of you know, we went back to the States for Christmas. We had so much fun visiting with family and tried to see as many of our friends as we could. It was a bit strange being there though, because we didn't have a "home" to go back to. When we visited our old work places, they were different and church was different with so many new faces. But we really enjoyed being there because, even though it was different, it was familiar and there was comfort in that.
Three weeks sounded like such a long time but the time flew by and before we knew it we were back on Dominican soil ... "home".
Home ... hmmm. As we have gone through the motions of settling back into life here I'm not sure that I can honestly say that it feels like home ... not quite yet. Some aspects of our lives here feel familiar and we have made wonderful friends here and love the work that we are doing here. But, honestly, we are missing there and all that was familiar there and our friends there and the work we did there. And all our family is there. We miss our kids, we miss my parents, we miss our siblings, we miss our grandkids and we will miss the birth of Dick's first "official" grandchild (he married into the other ones =).
Dick asked me what I wanted to do a few nights ago. I told him I wanted to go shopping at the Gardens Mall, then stop by Palm Beach Ice Cream and get a scoop of watermelon sherbet and go up to the beach to watch the kite surfers. That's familiar but that's there. There's a mall here ... an hour away in Santiago but they don't have a Macy's or a Dillards 70% off rack. And ... everyone speaks Spanish (imagine that!). There is also an ice cream shop here, and it's only about 5 minutes away. But the ice cream is very sweet, very grainy, tastes very artificial, and they don't have watermelon sherbet. And ... we have to know how to order in Spanish. There is a LOT of beach here - we do live on an island - and Caberete Beach is host to many kite surfing competitions. But it's a couple of hours away and it takes a whole lot more planning to get to. And ... everyone speaks Spanish. Our brains are tired from constant translation and most times we feel like we are only catching what people are saying, not truly understanding what they are saying. And responding back, well, it's better than it was but we still have a L-O-N-G way to go. We want so desperately to get to the point where we can understand and be understood by those we are attempting to communicate with. We had that there, but not here, not quite yet.
So now you know why you haven't heard from us for a while. We really are okay, it's just that the reality of moving here and not being there is beginning to sink in and sometimes those things are hard to put into words. I had a conversation with my brother recently and he mentioned our lack of blogging. When I told him why, he reminded me how important it is to let people know how to pray for us. So if you have managed to reach the end of this rambling, we would ask that you remember to keep us in your prayers. Please pray for us as we continue to transition here and keep letting go of there. Pray for our language learning - that will go a long way in helping us to feel settled here. And finally, please pray for us and the rest of the SI-DR staff as we prepare for summer teams. Pray also for those on the teams who will be passing through here - that everything we do and say will draw them into a deeper relationship with Christ and that He will be glorified by all that is said and done ... here.
