Hey all!
If you haven’t heard yet, my friends and I are back in the States! We flew into NYC Monday and are now scattered (most of us) throughout the country. I say “most of us” because there’s a handful, myself included, who have opted to stay in NYC for the Macy’s parade. We firgured we might as well take advantage of having landed here at this time of the year (despite the stark contrast in weather between Morocco and NY).
Me overlooking Casablanca from our apartment rooftop on our final night there.
I realize some of you may be reading this and thinking, “She’s already back?! I haven’t heard anything from her blog for 3 months!” To which I want to say I am very sorry. I was constantly aware of the importance of keeping y’all updated on my whereabouts. It was on my mind often. But I was also juggling the importance of so many other things that were much more tangible at the same time. The tension between important and very important was real.
That being said, I plan on posting a few more blogs before the end of the year about the months in which I neglected to blog anything (mostly September and October).
So this blog, while it’s talking about the end of the Race, isn’t the last you’ll see me post. This blog just contains information I want to get out there before Alissa and I board our Colorado-bound plane Thursday night. I hope it helps clear up some things about our return and this next season that you might have been wondering.
Here’s 9 things I want you to know before Friday.
1. You may not recognize that I’m different. Before this year I remember I had this widespread assumption about international travelers that they take on this whole new level of awesome that I’ll never reach unless I become one of them. Well, turns out after 11 months I still look the same, have the same sense of humor, require alone time, am still goofy and curious. Yes, I have certainly changed, but in ways you may not be able to tell. I’ve become more confident and comfortable with international travel, discovered new passions (including sign language and becoming more educated about Middle Eastern cultures) and learned just how much I love you, my friends and family.
2. We need to relearn a lot of things. Like how to speak not in broken English, that it’s ok to drink tap water and flush toilet paper, to be in a country where when we go out in public everyone speaks the same language as us, to not have a backpack we live out of, for some, to learn to take care of newfound physical and psychological issues, what it’s like to drive cars again, how to be alone without wondering if we should be somewhere doing something with someone else, how to be ok with having the possessions we have when so many in other countries don’t have any of that, what to do when it snows or gets really cold, how to be nutritionally balanced in a country where modified or unhealthy foods are easily accessible. Please be patient with us, especially if it takes us a long time to adjust or, dare I say, if we never fully adjust.
3. Doing what we did doesn’t make us some sort of perfect group of saints or super-Christians. If anything, this year has been a year of getting to see the ugly parts of myself under a powerful microscope. Please don’t praise us for going. Yes, we did something. We were willing to go and acted on that. But that initial willingness isn’t really something we can take full credit for either. I’m still messed up, broken, and as the hymn says “prone to wander” from God. The real miracle of this year is how God worked in those many moments of our weakness. He’s the hero.
4. I’ll be looking for a job after January rolls around, but for now funds are lacking a bit. So if you want to meet up with me I’d prefer to host you at our home and chat there. That way, too, I can show you pictures and videos without bringing my laptop with me each time I leave the house…. Also, I’ll make you Nepali tea!
5. I’m so willing to share about this year! If you’re reading this odds are you helped me go and do what God did through us this year. I have so many stories in my mental filing cabinet I want to share with you and anyone willing to listen. Sure, I may not show up at church the first Sunday I’m home or be quick to contact people to hang out, but I am still willing to share with you… I just need some time first to gather my thoughts.
6. I’ll answer any questions you have. I get that it might seem difficult to know where to begin, and that anything you ask is a sign you care. But for those who are up to the challenge, I’d love for you to ask me really specific questions you actually want the answers to. Let your curiosity/first thoughts guide your questions. I’d even go so far as to say the more controversial, the better! Then be ready to talk for a bit… Because as I said before, I want to share with you!
7. I am very very interested in hearing you share about your year too! Although this has been a wildly crazy wonderful year for me, I know many of you have had a similar year with many new things you have learned or adventures you’ve embarked on (marriage, grad school, having children, loosing someone dear, moving). Here’s my promise to you: I will NOT play the “my year was better than yours” game. Rather, I’ll listen to your stories with just as much intrigue and interest as I’d hope for you to do for me. Where you have rejoiced, I want to rejoice and where you have mourned, I want to mourn with you. I may not know where to start either, but the desire to hear you out is absolutely there so don’t let me hog the floor, ok?
8. We’ve had time to think about our relationships with our family and good friends back home and what we think of them and how we might want some things to change in those relationships. For many areas in life, we have a new perspective, bigger picture, newfound hopes and dreams. How and what kind of relationships we have with people is definitely one of those. For many, it’s been a question we’ve turned over and over in our minds since we’ve left. So if we have something we want to communicate with you about that, hear us out. We are trying to love better and have better relationships with you and want to collaborate with you to make those happen.
9. This is a magical but also tough time of year to be returning to America. Family holiday parties, coffee/tea with friends and Christmas church services are things I’m looking forward to. But some of our mentors for this year reminded us about America’s materialism and consumerism during this season. I’m wary of that stuff already, but after seeing so much of the rest of the world, it’ll be a much more real cause of disgust for me. What you might avoid doing: Requesting we have Christmas shopping dates.
“Thank you for this year” doesn’t scratch the SURFACE of the TIP of the iceburg that is my gratitude towards you, my supporters. Thank you thank you thank you for praying, for reaching out, for giving financially, even just for thinking of me on occasion. Y’all played a crucial role in this year and for helping spread Jesus’ message to the world. I can’t wait to see each of you again…from Colorado to Montana even to Brazil (I’m looking at you, Yara).
Love you guys sooooooooo crazy insanely much and HAPPY EARLY THANKSGIVING!
