Long time no see.
When we moved to Swaziland 4.5 years ago, I had every intention of faithfully chronicling our new life and all the stages we were going to go through as a new missionary family. Well, it didn't happen. We didn't have Wi-Fi at home for the first few months and then when we finally got it, I had it in my mind that I needed to go back and blog about EVERYTHING that had happened and that just overwhelmed me. So......
I didn't blog for years.
And a year ago when we moved to another place in Swaziland we didn't have Wi-Fi AGAIN. In fact, we didn't have it til a couple of weeks ago.
Y'all, the last years have been good and bad and fun and hard. Living on the mission field overseas is in many ways like living back in America. It is also very different. This last year or so has been a hard season for our family for too many reasons to go into right now. Just take my word for it. Last month, I was in America for a couple of weeks ago and did a lot of crying and whining and verbally processing. One of my dear college friends, Janet, encouraged me to start blogging again. And then the other day, I was talking to my grown daughter Anna ---- who, by the way, now lives with us in Swaziland --- and she also encouraged me to take it up again.
So here I am.
I probably won't ever get to share all the things I wish I could share with you about the first years of living here BUT, I can just start again. So many times, we don't do what we'd love to do or need to do because we think we have to do it perfectly. Well, that's just not reality for most of us in most situations. Sometimes, we just gotta start with where we're at. Sometimes we gotta do like that sports company slogan counsels and "just do it".
Okay, I'm just doing it.
I don't think I'll ever be back to blogging every single day like I did back in the day. I do hope, though, that I'll do it regularly enough to help me feel a bit more connected with the outside world, have a place where our family happenings are recorded so our loved ones far away can keep up with us better, help me work through what's going on in this life, and maybe bless and encourage a few readers in the process.
And hopefully, all this will be done with a big ole heaping helping of grace...grace dumped on y'all and grace dumped on me.
Because really, in this world of filters and pins, we all need to be reminded sometime that life is a gift even if it is messy and crazy and always imperfect. We need to do the things that make our hearts sing and our spirits swell even though we probably won't do it as well as we'd like.
And that's my corny, cliche'ish, yet true Musing from Graceland for today.
