Departure Day in Review (or I Love Byron)

The final week in the States will probably always remain a blur to me. Looking back on it, I am most thankful for the sweet times shared with friends and family in the midst of the last minute stress and details of leaving.

Every time we do this, every time we leave one continent and head for another, I am thankful all over again for Byron. We have totally different styles of prep. I get nostalgic and weepy and generally un-useful. Byron gets practical and efficient and generally unfriendly. Dang, I love him. He's the reason we arrive with all we need. Whether that be school books for the next year of home school, a chainsaw for some project's needs, an electric piano for a daughter who is head over heels in love with playing, or a fruit dryer for an income generating endeavor for women at risk, we'll have what we need because Byron will have packed it... and packed it well. We would be a mess if the packing were left to me.

Of course, we would go nowhere if the booking of flights and arranging of schedules were left to him so maybe I am a little useful after all.

I don't know how many bazillion hours Byron worked during our final week in California but I do know that he worked from 5am to 5pm on our day of departure. We then left for the airport at 5:05pm.

After getting all 12 large bags checked (and winning points from check-in guy for good organization, leading to an upgrade to nicer seats) Byron collapsed at the gate and slept for about an hour on the floor.

Heather put these Starbursts on his tummy cuz he loves them and she loves him and because we were spending all our leftover US change at the little shop there.

Byron... I don't know anyone else like him :-)

Settling In

We're home :-)

It will take a while for my heart and mind to catch up with the emotions of it all.

In the mean time, I am struck by simple things we consider normal here that are not a part of our days in Europe or the States.

Here's my short list of things I do regularly that maybe you don't do...

1. Filter the water twice. First round to remove fluoride (highest levels in the world here and will leach calcium from my bones) and second round to remove bacteria.

2. Wash my fruits and veg with slightly bleachy water to kill germs before I put the produce away.

3. Wash hands even before breakfast.

4. Raise a lot of our meat in the form of very cute bunnies. (My apologies to any vegetarian or vegan friends.)

5. Buy fresh/raw milk from a friend and boil it on the stove before letting it cool and putting it in fridge.

6. Consider whether or not I am free to wear trousers depending on what people group I'm going to be with.

7. Bake bread 2 or 3 times a week.

8. Crack each egg I'm going to use into a cup before adding to the bowl of ingredients just in case it's a bad egg. I once had 6 out of 12 eggs hold partially formed dead chicks. Not so fun...

9. Fall asleep on weekends hearing loud outdoor church crusades happening. Wake up early to the Mosque call.

10. Make a thermos of chai for our watchman last thing every night before I go to bed.

Departure Day

Woke up around 4:30a.m. just because I can't sleep and I'm thinking of lots of things.

We leave the house here in Pasadena in 11 hours.

Our flight to London is at 9:15p.m.

So, we fly on Friday night and arrive in London on Saturday afternoon. We sleep there and fly to Nairobi on Sunday morning. We arrive there on Sunday night. We sleep there 2 nights before taking the 6 hour bus ride back to Arusha on Tuesday.

Home on Tuesday.

Nice.

Pain of goodbyes today.

Not so nice.

Lest you think I've vanished...

... It's just that we're in the countdown mayhem of the final 4 days in the U.S.

I will not bore you with everything we're juggling.

I hope to have a chance to catch my breath and reflect a little on this process.

But for now, one more doctor's visit this morning to show my healing nose to the surgeon, one more chance for a little team meeting with Russells as they're here now and we're on our way out, and one more chance for a little date this afternoon with my parents...

Between all these good things today, PACKING (with some panic thrown in.)

We fly on Friday night.

Talk again soon :-)

xx

I did it (I signed)

So I've had this book contract sitting in the bedroom for a month.

Well, to be honest, I haven't been around much this last month. We've been just all over the place, running from appointment to appointment to speaking gig to speaking gig.

And to be honest, I kept forgetting that there was this contract to sign.

Who does that? What writer forgets that a publisher wants her to write?

Good grief.

(Tony, if you read this, I won't actually forget to write the book!)

But beside the fact that I've been running around like a maniac and have also incurred some kind of short term memory loss for important things, I have to admit that I've been a little freaked out about this whole thing.

Why? I have to ask myself why. I guess I'm scared I'll fail or disappoint or sound like an idiot.

But today we came home from a team reunion with our lovely Russells and I was sitting quietly in the garden with Byron and my folks when I remembered. We had a pot of tea and a happy vibe of homeyness.

"You guys stay here," I said as I ran for the back door.

I grabbed the 2 copies of the contract and ran back outside with them.

"Look, it's a historical moment! I'm signing this book contract."

Byron made me wait till he got a camera.

There you have it. A book of essays on prayer coming up soon.

AGH!

We Heart Europe (so we pray)

We live in Africa but we have major feelings for Europe. And Europe needs our prayers. Our amazing extended family in the 24-7 Prayer movement is virally spreading the word that this is a brilliant time to be praying.

Catch the daily video casts HERE this week from the likes of Pete Greig and Andy Freeman and join in the avalanche of prayer. It's going to make a world of difference :-)