Since our family is touring the east coast prior to our upcoming move to Nepal, I’ll be using our normal {Work in Progress Wednesday} spot to focus instead on our travels.
We’ve been living out of two Action Packers and a duffel bag for nearly a week now: 9 explorers seeing the sights, fellowshipping with friends, and doing our best to be kind to one another in the face of a 3-hour time change, a whole lot of uncommonly busy days, and the logistics of being vagabonds. It’s been an adventure already– and we’re only a quarter of the way into the nights and days that separate us from Washington and, eventually, Nepal.
We’ve been welcomed into the homes of loving friends who have been mindful of our special family circumstances, even when we’ve insisted that they should stick to business as usual. We’ve been loaned a vehicle, sat down to delicious meals, and stayed up way too late enjoying the company of people who have made us feel “normal” … whatever that means. The biggest lesson of this trip, I think, is that the art of hospitality is far from dead. Folks with no obligation towards us whatsoever have thrown open their doors, arms, and bedrooms for us. No small task … and yet, they have done so. Joyfully.
So far, we have toured the Smithsonian, seen the monuments in Washington, D.C., and visited Monticello. Everyone has had their favorite stop. (Mine were, probably not surprisingly, 2 kitchens: Julia Child’s in the American History museum, and the restored version on display at Monticello.) Several years ago, when we studied American history, I lamented that we lived on “the wrong coast” for our studies. Now, finally, my children have driven through battlefields in rural Virginia, seen the Capitol with their own eyes, been given perspective to how many bodies it took to make those photos of the Mall overflow with peaceful protest.
And yet, amid all the movement, we’ve been continuing to make solid our transition plans. We have found a home in Nepal thanks to a wonderful new homeschooling friend who made room in her life to tour and photograph not one, but three houses for us. We’re raising the last of our support. Our tickets are purchased. Our Nepali daughter has even begun the process for planning Christopher’s first birthday party in Nepal.
Today, we are pausing for some much-needed down time with frien. ds. Mary Hannah and Mathaus are taking advantage of an offer to become CPR-certified, while everyone else sits still and enjoys air conditioning, soft couches, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
We are tired. Happy, but tired.
Please keep us in your prayers as you think of us over the next few days. We have much, much more activity planned as we make our way from stop to stop. Safe travels, health, blessing upon our hosts, and perseverance are all needs that we are taking to the Lord. Phineas has done outstandingly well. But we’re all in need of some supernatural restoration.
Until next Wednesday ….