1.) Family and friends (obviously) -I have been blessed beyond what anyone deserves when it comes to friends and family. It will be really, really, really, really hard to not be able to pick up the phone or hop in the car whenever I want to connect with my favorite people. (Yep. This is still number one. It's still hard. It never gets easier, though we are finding our groove little by little, and technology sure helps a lot.)
2.) Home schooling - I am thrilled that I'm going to get to work at a Christian school, and that my children will be able to attend there, as well. But, home schooling has a been a part of my identity personally, professionally, politically, socially, and academically for more than a dozen years now. In many ways, it has shaped who I am, who my children are, and how we are known by others. It will be VERY strange to not be involved with home schooling for this season of our lives. (I DID miss this. Like, a LOT!!! When things were really, really tough over Christmas break, and we were praying about what we should be doing with our lives, Mark asked me, "If you could do anything, what would you do?" All I wanted was to stay in Guatemala, but to be able to home school again. That looked like an impossibility at the time. Yet, here we are, starting our family's 10th year of home schooling, having even more opportunities to minister here, and loving every minute of it!)
3.) Sleeping in - I cringe to admit that I almost put this as number 2 (or 1), but it is kind of a big deal to me. I like sleep. A lot. I've never been a good early riser, and I'm going to have to be up, dressed, fed, and AT WORK by 7:30. In the morning!!! I know God will help me with this, but it is going to be a big adjustment. Prayers are appreciated. (This was not as hard for me as I was afraid it might be. Granted, I never got to the place of liking having to leave the house by 7:10, but it wasn't as much of a problem as I thought it would be. That being said, I am loving not having to be up so early these days!)
4.) Our church - It kind of makes me cry a little on the inside every time I think about having to leave our church. It's really wonderful. We've grown and learned so much there, and have been so welcomed and embraced by its members. Our children, especially, have loved their precious time here. I know we will find a new church, but I have a feeling that FFCC will always be home. (I miss our church a lot. That's true. But, we've also found a great groove here that we wouldn't otherwise have discovered. We go to a really wonderful, local church every other Sunday. On the other Sundays, we have our own service at home. Everyone has a part to play. We worship. We pray. We hear [or give] a message. It has been a really sweet time of growth for our family, and I'm glad we have it.)
5.) A flexible schedule - I've never worked a full-time job. Ever. I mean, I've ended up working part time jobs that were really more than 40 hours a week, but I've always been able to set my own hours and be flexible, which I've loved. It's allowed me to help out, volunteer, tackle projects, etc... I am really going to miss that. (Yes. I missed this, too! I was at school for nine hours a day most weekdays, and then had two or more hours of work at home afterward. It felt like we never had time to do anything. Even scheduling eye appointments was tough, let alone having time to foster relationships! I much prefer the flexibility that home schooling affords us, both personally, and from a ministry standpoint.)
6.) HyVee - For real. I love my local grocery store. They're the best chain foodstore in the world, in my opinion. I love their reliability, their quality, their friendliness, and their prices. (Oh, and the coupons!) As a frugal home maker with a family who loves to eat, they're kind of like a second home to me. Rarely a week goes by that I don't visit at least once. I know I'll come to love the market place, but I will seriously miss my HyVee. (I still miss HyVee! We do have a grocery store we go to weekly to do our shopping, but it's not the same. Nothing will ever be the same as HyVee. That being said, since I've been able to be home, I've had the chance to walk to the huge outdoor market area to do my shopping as well, and it's really a sight to behold. I love the colors, sounds, smells [mostly] and overall richness of the market.)
7.) Solitude - What can I say? I like to be alone. I don't think I'll have a lot of alone time in Xela. For one thing, we will be so much busier, and there are so many more people in the town. But, I also won't be able to send my kids to the park alone, or leave them at home to go do a bit of shopping or take a walk. (This was hard the first two years, but is getting better now. I still can't send the girls outside to play by themselves [which all of us miss!], but at least I can leave them home alone briefly so I can run an errand or go to the store. Mostly, though, I'm learning to need less solitude, and that's probably a good thing in the long run.)
8.) Things being easy - I am anticipating that stuff (mostly everything) will be harder in Guatemala. You know, like having to wash fruits and veggies in bleach water and then rinse them in bottled water before you eat them. Or not being able to just run down to the local store and know for sure that you'll be able to find what you're looking for. Or driving with the expectation that people around you are going to follow the laws and stay in their own lanes and off your bumper. Stuff like that. (Nothing is easy here. You stand in line for an hour sometimes to pay your electric bill. Traffic is insane. They often shut all the main roads in town down for marathons. You can't go to one store to find everything, so you have to know about and shop at dozens of different stores. Our power goes out frequently. If we don't remember to fill our water filter at night, we won't have water to drink the next day. The list goes on and on and on. I do miss life being easier, but the challenges here have become normal, and don't really bother me much any more.)
9.) Government that works (mostly) - I can certainly understand why people are up in arms about our governments (local all the way up to federal) being bloated, top-heavy, out of touch, ineffective, wasteful, unconstitutional, etc... But, they're still waaaaaaaaaaaaay better than what they've got in Guatemala. I'm not looking forward to having police officers looking for bribes, and having to negotiate my way around a very corrupt system. (Yes. This is frustrating. We never know how much we'll have to pay in taxes on items we bring into the country. Or even IF we'll have to pay, for that matter. Registering a vehicle is a process that can take days of standing in lines at different offices. We know people who are involved in legal matters right now, and it feels like all you can do is pray, because you never know if things are going to work right. Worst of all, that mentality seeps into non-government interactions, too, so people just always act in a fair, just, upright way in their daily lives and business dealings, either. It's frustrating.)
10.) Fall and Spring - I do love the changing of the seasons. At least, these seasons. I'm still pretty sure I'm not going to miss winter. At all. Ever. (Nope. Don't miss winter. :) In fact, I don't really miss spring or fall that much either, come to think of it.)
11.) Being an expert at the local language - I take a lot of pride (more than I should, I know) in being able to use the English language correctly. It is really, really going to be hard to butcher the local language, and to have to be on the receiving end of correction about grammar, pronunciation, etc... <sigh> (This is still painful for me. Though my Spanish is now at a level that I feel comfortable with most daily interactions, I vacillate between wanting to put in the work it would take to truly become an expert, and being lazy and satisfied with the level I am currently at. I'll keep you posted about how that eventually shakes out...)
12.) Wide, open spaces - I love the mountains, but I think I will end up longing for the flat, expansive cornfields of Iowa, where the only thing bigger than the vista ahead of you is the blue sky above. (I loved every moment of being in Iowa this summer, but I really love the mountains here. I am surprised at how much they feel like home to me. I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing the clouds falling over a forested mountainside. This terrain suits me a lot more than I expected it would.)
13.) The familiar - You know, like intersections that remind me that I'm close to home. My favorite blanket when we're watching TV. My 'go-to' knife and cutting board in the kitchen. All those thousands of little things that make daily life so comfortable, even if you don't think about them... I know we'll eventually become familiar with our new surroundings, but the transition will be challenging. (I guess it doesn't take too long to regain that. We didn't feel like anything was familiar for the first year or so, but now we all have our favorite TV blankets, go-to knives and cutting boards, etc. once again. Sure, I still have things that I miss from before, but mostly we feel like life here is familiar now. Who knew that would be so easy to replicate!)
14.) Pulling our own weight financially - Words can't express how grateful we are for our financial supporters. And, I know it's absolutely Biblical and appropriate to be supported by others while sharing the gospel, and that our supporters will be immeasurably blessed because of their giving. Still, it's a hard thing to accept sometimes. (This is still hard, but in a different way than I expected. I don't ever want one of our financial supporters to think that we don't appreciate what they provide for us, or that we're not using our resources well, so I get nervous even talking about anything that might have to do with money. Will people think we are eating too extravagantly if we share that we got pizza to celebrate a milestone? Will they be unhappy to know that we're thinking about moving to a house that's a slightly more expensive, but much safer and more comfortable? In some ways, it feels like we're responsible for answering to a whole lot of people for our every expenditure, even though I know that's probably self-imposed. On the other hand, having to depend on God for our everything has been really liberating. I think it has helped us have a MUCH more Biblical understanding of money and its place in our lives than we ever had before.)
15.) The life we might have had - I don't think I'll ever regret doing mission work, but the fact that we have opted out of so much - including the 'normal' American life - will forever alter our future. I don't grieve over who we'll never end up being, or what we'll never end up doing or achieving because we're moving to Guatemala. But, I do have to take a moment to acknowledge that our future is going to be different because of this choice. It's at least worth pondering... (This still pops into my head periodically. If we wouldn't have moved to Guatemala, right now we'd be ______________. I think it's especially hard for my girls, because their lives here look very different from what they would in the States, and it's easier to see what you don't have than to really be able to appreciate the uniqueness of what you do have. This is challenging for our oldest, as she's starting to think about going to college. There are definitely things she doesn't have here, but what she does have more than makes up for it. It's just, well, different. I guess that's the only way to sum this up. It's not worse. Probably better. But, most definitely different.)
Guess I was better at making some predictions than others, huh? All in all, though I miss things from the States and our old life, I really wouldn't trade this for anything right now. I guess that's one of the good things about following God - He not only makes you willing and able, but excited to do the things He puts before you. So grateful for His goodness in our lives!
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