Celebration and rest

I arrived home late last night - very late...i must say my time in Kerala was amazing with two very annoying/frustrating flights at either end!

Pictures to come...it will take a few days for all of us to share our pictures with one another though...

Here are a few thoughts/updates/reflections from the past couple weeks:

To sum up this season of advent and Christmas in a word i would say "longing" or "expectation." This longing for redemption, for the arrival of our Savior, the arrival of restoration and fullness. This season of waiting and expecting has been beautiful.

I am thankful that i was able to spend Christmas in such a beautiful place with friends. It made it much easier to be away from my family and friends who i usually see over the holidays. (more vacation/adventure updates to come but i will say that Christmas day was great - incredible food, reading, a nap, talking with my family, playing games, some time celebrating Jesus' arrival and all that means, and a Christmas day swim by a rice paddy!)

I am thankful for time out of the city, and away from the hard things that i carry. I forget how draining or tiring it can be for me living here. I think its hard for me to stay healthy emotionally and spiritually - even when i'm really focused on "taking care of myself" and doing the things i know i need to do to stay healthy. I don't realize how tired or worn out i am until i'm out of the think of it. I am thankful for rest, in fun and deep ways - reading, napping, walking on the beach, the slowness of the days, the time in nature, the time to sit and think, to pray, to receive, to process, to prepare.

Since today is over i only have 6 working days left with IJM. It was with great sadness that i counted the days on my fingers last night as i sat on another delayed airplane. While i know the days have been dwindling I've been "handling" that knowledge by denial. In addition to the sure failure of my "plan" for handling this transition there have been some changes recently that make this transition even harder for me. I feel like i had time to prepare for this season - like i can enter it now. I am sad to leave the aftercare ladies. So its with a heavy heart (but also with excitement for the future) that I come home and enter fully into this season of transition. (its all made slightly more strange by the fact that I'll be in South Asia for about 2 months after i finish working with IJM).

As for the future (at least the immediate future) in less than a week my best-good-sister-friend Merilee is coming to south asia. It seems surreal that she'll be here and that i'll be introducing her to my friends here, walking her through the market, and stuffing her into an overcrowded train. We'll be traveling in South Asia for a month Then i'll spend a month helping Stephanie out and doing I-Sanctuary stuff, with a plan to be back in the States in time for my new niece or nephew's arrival at the beginning of March