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Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Sunday, February 26, 2017
Saturday, February 25, 2017
Sunday, February 19, 2017
Step 3: Muthaiga country club-also from the movie! (Nice to have a friend who is a member... oh la la)
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The beginning of our girls' "Out of Africa" day! First stop: Karen Blixen house museum.
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Saturday, February 18, 2017
Thursday, February 16, 2017
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Saturday, February 11, 2017
One of her favorite things: poking at the "mites" (termites) and watching them scatter. This girl isn't afraid of much!
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Friday, February 10, 2017
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
Sunday, February 5, 2017
Leaving
“…I could not have known then that everybody, every person, has to leave, has to change like seasons; they have to or they die. The seasons remind me that I must keep changing, and I want to change because it is God’s way…Everybody has to leave, everybody has to leave their home and come back so they can love it again for all new reasons….
…I want to keep my soul fertile for the changes, so things keep getting born in me, so things keep dying when it is time for things to die. I want to keep walking away from the person I was a moment ago, because a mind was made to figure things out, not to read the same page recurrently...”
“…And so my prayer is that your story will have involved some leaving and some coming home, some summer and some winter, some roses blooming out like children in a play. My hope is your story will be about changing, about getting something beautiful born inside of you, about learning to love a woman or a man, about learning to love a child, about moving yourself around water, around mountains, around friends, about learning to love others more than we love ourselves, about learning oneness as a way of understanding God. We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting and the climax and the resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn’t it?
It might be time for you to go. It might be time to change, to shine out.
I want to repeat one word for you: Leave.
Roll the word around on your tongue for a bit. It is a beautiful word, isn’t it? So strong and forceful, the way you have always wanted to be. And you will not be alone. Don’t worry. Everything will still be here when you get back. It is you who will have changed.”
-Donald Miller, Through Painted Deserts
We are leaving Kenya in June. Even writing that makes it more painful and more real. We have known this for a while, but I have fought it. There is a lot more for another time. I think about this a lot-what is my story? What is the story of our family? What seasons do we want to highlight? My journal is full of daily confusions, half-explained thoughts on this at the moment. I’m hoping to unpack it all coherently someday.
Today is about thinking about change. The beautiful excerpt above is from the introduction to his book about a road trip in America. It could’ve been what we were thinking as we contemplated moving here, and now it seems again to fit perfectly as we leave. Being open to change grows us, gives us perspective, makes us find out that we are brave (“so strong and forceful, the way you have always wanted to be”).
Coming home to America is scarier right now than leaving our wild life here. Because we are going back to places and people that used to be familiar but have changed while we were gone. I am sure it is true what he says: we will love it again for all new reasons.
Do we really have to leave? I ask. Yes. It will help us to better appreciate the love of family and friends. It will allow us to face new challenges and discover new strengths. It will be hard. Saying goodbye to somewhere that you are loved and rooted and known is always hard. We felt that three years ago, and here we are again.
And what about you? How will you "shine out"?
Saturday, February 4, 2017
Friday, February 3, 2017
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