Monday, January 21, 2008

Quiet Around Here...

It's been quiet on this blog as our last few days have been a crush of activity and a swirl of emotion getting Jesse off on Saturday afternoon. For those who are interested, his flight route was Kilimanjaro-Kigali (Rwanda)-Addis (Ethiopia)-Rome-Washington D.C.-Los Angeles. Goodness! Now he has a few days in California before heading to Belize, Central America, to begin a semester-long course in Creation Care. He's very happy that he'll be studying in the rainforest.

For us, it's a bit of a shock to the system to be just the 4 of us again. We all grieve the departure of the 2 older brothers in slightly different ways, from being grumpy to getting quiet to feeling teary. We also trade off which one we're using as our coping technique! "I'll be grumpy today; you be teary." Ha ha.

I remember years ago, when Jesse and Trevor were quite small, dropping my parents off at the airport in Nairobi to send them back to L.A. I was overcome with sadness at their departure. But then a wee little light went on. Maybe, instead of focusing on how sad it was that they had to return home, I could think about how wonderful it was that they were able to come out and see us at all!

It's a good idea... (But it doesn't always work.)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like your sharing of the grumps and tears....they come in at all different times with varying degrees of wildness. Oh my, sweet Nelly is skyping Jesse this very moment and arranging a dinner here with your handsome son!! We will hug him knowing he has recently hugged you my dear Lisa.love sue

Anonymous said...

btw,...haven't heard from anyone as of yet how to make that thing work, the saying goodbye and being glad for the visit... when really you just want them back!!

pearl said...

Yes, the only hard thing about seeing places, I think, is being away from the ones we love...

I got to talk with Jesse on Skype last night for almost 2 hours! It was very nice.

You're an incredible woman, Lisa.

Anonymous said...

Hi Lisa,
Such great adventure for Jesse in the rainforest! How wonderful. What kinds of things will he study in his Creation Care semester?
Love you, Dore'

lisa said...

Grumps and tears are the realities of who we are :-)

Gypsy-girl, so nice that you could have a good skype connection with J-boy!

Dore', he gets to take Sustainable Development, Tropical Ecology, Biology and Faith, and Environmental History.

Adam Gonnerman said...

That's pretty cool though, to go from Africa to Central American rainforest.

When I was a missionary in Brazil I never had anyone visit from home, but then again I was only there for three years. My parents wouldn't have made the trip on a bet, but one of my brother's would have gotten around to it eventually.

Anonymous said...

[I posted this a few days ago but it didn't show up. Weird]

I would just like to hug all of your hearts right now. That is all.