My top TEN list ~ what I've learned while in the good old USA

And so life continues….

It’s been a separated season for our family since we left Kibogora last July.  Life’s pace since we boarded the plane for “home” (an easy word, but I don’t think I can define that word clearly for myself anymore) in mid summer has blurred and numbed my mind to the point where much of my journaling comes out as rolling fog.  However, I’m going to attempt to encapsulate some of my thoughts and experiences in what will probably be a lengthy blog post. 

Feel free to leave me and go get a cup of your favorite brew, put on those favorite fuzzy socks, put your feet up, and then come back to read my meandering thoughts. 

I think I’ll post my thoughts in this  “top 10” main points…..enjoy. 

10.Pressure Socks Work!

I’d heard that wearing those old lady pressure socks on long airplane rides helped with circulation and also helped prevent those pesky blood clots.  So, I wore them.  Just before our flight home, I realized I couldn’t find one of the socks, so I decided to just wear one pressure sock and one other normal sock, and that I would switch socks from time to time.  Well, I forgot to switch.  When I arrived at our destination, I had the most terrible leg cramps in the “normal sock” leg the next two days, and couldn’t imagine why only ONE leg was so sore and crampy.  Then I remembered my sock situation – AHA!  So, while I can’t speak to the blood clot prevention, I can say, if you fly, wear those pressure socks!  They really do help prevent muscle cramps.

9. Furloughs are not vacation! 

The online dictionary defines furlough as:  “A leave of absence or vacation.”  All I can say to that is, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! 

Our time at home was crazy-packed full of so many things – if you called it a vacation, I just might have to crack up.  Let’s see, in under a month, we covered 4,000 miles in the car, went to 20 doctor appointments, had 7 cavities filled, 6 mouths cleaned, visited 5 colleges, moved our oldest into college and attended family & new student orientation, shopped for 3 dorm rooms, spoke 8 times at various churches and Sunday school classes, fixed a busted water heater in our old house, replaced another water heater, and attended my Dad’s big 80^th birthday bash, and a bunch of other stuff.  That’s a lot.  Not exactly a relaxing few days at the beach. Whew. 

8. Outfitting a college dorm and two high school dorm rooms 

is expensive!

Let's just say I wish I'd bought stock in Target before we started shopping.  'Nuff said.    

   7. You’re never too old to enjoy having an Aunt and Uncle help take care of you.  

My Aunt and Uncle live in Temple, and I’ve seen a good bit of them the last few days.  My uncle took me and my car to a good brake shop and helped obtain fair and honest care for the vehicle.  LaVerne cooked breakfast for me, they both took us out to eat tonight, and without being asked, even gave me some money in case I needed some (they didn’t even know I’d just cried to God about not having money in my wallet that morning!).  I’ve so enjoyed getting to talk to them, hear more about how they first met, and hear about their prison ministry, which they do here. 

  6.  Brakes are Important. 

While driving to visit Hannah last weekend, Sam and I kept noticing that the car (a 1991 Crown Victoria, which otherwise is in great shape) we were driving kept sort of “shuddering” whenever I applied the brakes.  Not being a car mechanical genius, I just noted this odd car behavior and kept driving.  After driving around Belton and Temple for a few days, I started noticing the rather loud noise the car made each time I began to brake, and also noticed the way the car sort of skidded to a stop rather than just stopped.  Finally, I decided to ask my uncle, who lives in Temple, if he would drive it and tell me what he thought.  Turns out, the brakes were almost completely gone, and the pads were metal on metal.  The mechanic said it was a miracle that I didn’t lose all stopping power altogether.  Needless to say, Sam and I are now car-less in Temple, waiting on the brakes to be repaired! And we are so happy to be no worse for the wear!  (We actually are not car-less, because my sweet uncle and aunt are letting us use their car whenever we want to or need it!) 

5.   You get what you pay for.

Perhaps this goes with the car story above as well, but we learned a lesson about our hotel.  “How LOW can you go?” is probably not the best question to ask when booking a hotel.  Sam and I found a room at “America’s Best Value Inn”, which, I assure you, is NOT a value of any kind, for $35 a night.  I initially thought, “What-a-deal!”, but instead, upon seeing it, we truly wondered if we’d make it through the night.  I stubbornly refused to leave the place until we’d used up our two pre-paid nights, but on Sunday, I was oh-so-happy to vacate the premises.  If you’re ever going through Temple, do NOT stay at the “Best Value Inn”.  Just trust me on this, unless you like sleeping on mattresses with the coils poking through the mattress, soggy carpeting, feeling pretty sure you are at an all body tattoo & biking convention instead of a hotel, and seeing so many cigarette butts, you begin to wonder if they give credit for them at the recycling station. 

4.   Studying Pays Off:

Can I just give a shout-out to all my home school mom friends out there?  Hang in there!!!  I was thinking the other day, when I saw my Hannah Banana in her dorm, that I was so grateful I got to home school her.  We’ve done about every kind of schooling there is (home school, small, private, Christian school, big public school & missionary kid boarding school).  So, I’m definitely not one to think there is only ONE way to do school.  All the different ways of educating your children have their plusses and minuses, for sure.  But, I’m really glad I got to home school my kids for many of their schooling years.  I have a lot of fond memories of school days (daze?) spent together.  I’m grateful that Hannah wanted to attend a Christian school like Mary Hardin Baylor.  And I’m really grateful that she studied so hard in high school.  She was rewarded for all that hard work by being awarded lots of scholarship money for school – you don’t just get money for college by playing sports, guys.  Sometimes you get the bucks for grades and SAT scores.  Now that we’re doing this Rwanda thing, we are even more grateful for all her hard work, which has made the college thing possible for us.  We are grateful.  Very grateful.   

3.  Teenagers are awesome.  

I hear a lot of folks complain about teenagers.  I must disagree with the concept that teens are a pain.  I think teens are awesome!  They are their own people – and we get the chance to embrace and revel in who God is making them to be – and to marvel that He can make such entirely different people out of the same starting set of DNA!  Years ago, back when I was just thankful at the end of each day that I’d somehow kept all 4 of them alive for another 24 hours, I never would have thought how fun and refreshing it could be to one day hang out with each of those little people when they were “all grown up”, drink coffee or tea, and discuss real things - things just a bit more interesting than why Barney was purple.  I am so thankful that God gave each one to us and that He made me a mom.  Best job I’ve ever had, hands down.  Fer sure.  (Also the most exhausting, but we won’t mention that right now.)

2. My husband rocks.  

  
    He just does.  And since I’ve already been obnoxious in a lot of other places in this post, I may as well finish it off with bragging about Tim.   ……

Okay, actually, I won’t.  I’ll make that a whole separate post.  So, go to the blog again in a couple hours and I’ll spell out the whole story about why I’m especially proud of my hubster right now.

And the final top 10 thing I’ve learned lately about life and etc.,….

1 What we GET to do in Rwanda is SUCH A HUGE PRIVILEGE.  

    And, I need to say a HUGE “Thank you” to everyone who supports us prayerfully and financially, which enables us to be there.  So…....

T*H*A*N*K* Y*O*U*! 

I re-learned this truth the other day when I was sitting out in the hall at the less-than-stellar Best Value Inn, reading my Bible and having “Just a little talk with Jesus”, as the old country song goes. 

I was tired from the long drive to Belton, tired because I’d hardly slept between wondering if an ex-con man (or current con man) was gonna bust through our door, and I was tired from listening to Sam snore all night due to the congestion in his head from his cold.  I was feeling sorry for myself because of the lousy (oh yeah, I’ve already mentioned it was lousy, haven’t I?) hotel room we were in and for the fact that the car I was driving had made weird, crunchy, vibrating noises half the ride to Belton and I didn’t know why.   My back was complaining about the thin and squishy mattress I’d slept on, and my mind was wondering how many times the mattress had been used for hired reasons. 

And so, as I sat there reading my Bible, and sort of off and on mentioning (okay, I was actually more like complaining and whining!) to my Heavenly Dad that I wasn’t feeling all that great because of all the above reasons, I came upon these passages: 

I Peter 5:7  “Cast all your cares upon him, because he cares for you.”

Phil 4:6-7 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."  

I didn’t understand at the time that while those verses were nice at the moment, I’d really need them the next day when my car broke down and when I realized I needed to switch to a different hotel.  

But also, for the current day, He reminded me of these truths….

1. I had His love.  
2. I had my husband's love.  
3. I had 4 great kids, all of whom I love so much, and all of whom love me.  
4. Therefore, what was my problem?  All the rest of it just doesn't matter.  Oh, Lord, how EASILY I forget this truth!  

He reminded me that it is a privilege to "suffer" (ha ha – as if I know the slightest thing about suffering! Ha! ) these tiny things for the cause of Christ's kingdom, and to not put my trust in – or even to allow myself to think I “needed” - this world's pleasures (like a comfy car, better hotel, easy money to spend).  Because if I did, I would end up sacrificing getting to be a part of working with Him in Rwanda - which is a HUGE gift to us. 

Here’s what I wrote to Tim in an email later that day.  These were thoughts that came out of that time with Jesus in the dank and musty hall of that hotel – the hotel I hated, but which GOD turned into holy ground as I sat on the floor there in the hallway Saturday morning. 

(from my email to Tim)  “When you think of it, what we are getting to do in Rwanda/Africa is such a huge privilege.  That God would use US, you and me, as messed up and broken as we are, to advance HIS WILL ON THIS PLANET, is truly amazing!  

WHY do I begrudge a tiny bit of inconvenience so we can be a part of the GREATEST story, the GREATEST plot line EVER in all eternity?   WHY do I worry about money or creature comforts?  None of the stuff I spend most of my time on matters at all.  What we are GETTING to do in Rwanda right now by you being there, that matters.  Getting to be a mom to our kids - having them to love, that matters.  Getting to watch Jesus do amazing things for our friends in Rwanda.  That matters.  All this other stuff just doesn't matter at all.  

I am once again GRATEFUL to the KING OF KINGS that He hand picked me and put me on His team.  We must not forget that we are GETTING to do what we do, and not think we "have" to do it.  This is such a gift to us, and to our family.  Let's thank God for it today!”

That is definitely the number 1 thing I’ve learned from my time in the USA.  

I’ve been reminded that this time we have to live and work in Rwanda is a beautiful gift, given to us by our God who loves us beyond measure.

But just like being in a high school marching band, or playing on a sports team, or being in a school play, getting to be on the team is only part of the deal – it also includes saying no to some things in order to be a better team player – saying “no" to other events on game day or practice time or during play practice, or on Saturday mornings and every day in the summer, when the band practices its routine.   

There are just some things you give up if you want to do something else.  

For me, after I was getting frustrated, I realized, I had been wanting to be on God’s Rwanda Team, but, after only being home a few weeks, I had started wanting all the other things, too – like my old house, my old car, money in my wallet, and a nice hotel room!  These things are so trivial, so small, compared to the JOY of what we get to do. 

(But I am still so very thankful for the dear anonymous friend who paid for us to have a safer hotel!!)

And I’m so glad that God was kind enough to gently remind me nothing good comes without sacrifice - that saying yes to living in Rwanda by necessity means I have to say no to some other stuff.  And that's okay!

I’m “all in” again – loving the life I’ve been given, and oh-so-longing to get back home to my husband and to Rwanda!  (But first, I am so glad I get to be here for parents’ weekend at Hannah’s college.  After that, I’m Rwanda bound.)