What’s it like being home after a year of traveling the world!?
Well hey, it’s been awhile. Last time I posted a blog I was still out on the field.
If you don’t follow me on social media and didn’t know, I am back home. It’s been a little over a month since I have been back. It’s weird actually, this time last year I was in Ukraine. (Still my absolute favorite month on the race.)
Well well well, truthfully I don’t even know where to begin or what to say. A Lot has been going on so I figured I would update you.
After the race ended, I flew to Florida which is where most of my family lives. Got to spend a month home with my parents, brothers, and nieces. It was so good to see them after being gone for 11 months. When I got to Florida, I wasn’t sure how long my time there would be, I just knew I wanted to spend as much time with family. It was weird being home. I definitely felt a lot of emotions I didn’t expect to feel. Things were overwhelming. During my time in FL, I knew eventually I’d go back to Tulsa so I was applying for jobs. Not much was happening though. I started to doubt if I was supposed to come back. Ya’ll the enemy was fighting me so hard on coming back to Tulsa. Then after a few weeks of being home, my old company reached out to me and asked when I’d be back in Tulsa because they had a position opening and wanted me back! I was ecstatic! I absolutely loved my old job. So yeah, they offered me my old position back, I’m a CA (Community Associate), and here is where it get’s super cool and the hand of God was all over it. When I was in the rehiring process, they asked me what I was making before I left. I thought I would have to start back at the hiring rate which was a little bit of a bummer because I worked for the company for about 3 years prior so I had a few raises. BUT I was still willing to take the job back because I loved it and it paid pretty well anyway.
But I should of known better, the goodness of God always one ups me. I didn’t start back down at the hiring rate, ya’ll they offered me to start with making MORE than what I left making. *Praise break!!*
Literally, God is SO FAITHFUL and how he takes care of what we place in his hands amazes me. When I first got accepted on the World Race and I knew it was something God was wanting me to do, it was really hard to give up my job because I loved it and I knew I wasn’t promised it when I got back because my position had to be fulfilled. So I laid it in Gods hands, expecting to probably not get to work there again. SIKE. God had took care of it. And what’s even funnier, the lady who took my position when I left, she is the one who stepped down from the position and now I took her spot. HOW COOL?! I truly believe even that was God because anyone could have taken my position and they could have stayed for YEARS. But I think it’s kind of funny that she happened to decided to step down right when I got back. To me, that is God’s hand over what we lay down for Him. So anyway! I drove back to Tulsa August 2nd and started August 5th! It was hard to leave my family again, it is unfortunate that I don’t live closer to them but how many of you can agree with me that some places & environments, just isn’t good for you and isn’t where you thrive. And I hate that I don’t thrive where my parents happen to live hahah. But that is a whole other story!
So here I am, back in Tulsa. It is great to be back but also another adjustment to cause so much has changed. What’s next for me? Well, I’m going to be working, serving at my church and our downtown campus, building community, and working on my book. Some know but many don’t, before I left for the race, I was working on writing a book. I wrote about 12 chapters, not all are finished, but when the WR came up, the Lord so clearly told me that there were things I was going to go through on the Race that I need to write about in my book. So I knew one of the reasons God had me go on the World Race, was for my book. SO now that I am back and beginning to process the past 11 months, which by the way, I’ve established that I am a slow processor with things like this hahaha. I was with my sweet friend Emma last night, just catching up on life and she told me
“ I feel like the World Race is going to be this monumental moment in your life that God is going to continue to bring you back to for the rest of your life and say things like ‘Wow, this is what God did. This is why God did this, this is why He allowed this to happen, this is why He had me do this.”
And honestly that is absolutely so true, I believe it. Ya know, it’s easy to kind of feel a pressure to hurry up and process what happened on the WR so I can answer peoples question and explain all God did in and through me. But, that’s just nuts. Straight up nuts to process an entire 11 months in 11 different places and cultures and process all the things I seen and felt, in a matter of a few weeks haha. And that might be why it’s taken me so long to write another blog to update everyone cause I just didn’t know what to say. I also was dealing with adjusting and re-entry!
Another thing I am learning about re-entry and adjusting back is that a lot of it is retraining my mind. Ya’ll, the spiritual warfare of coming back home after doing something like this was a lot. But as I got to Tulsa and got to attend a conference my church was doing, OH MY GOSH, I was reminded of so much truth and realized so many lies I was believing and letting overtake my mind. So many patterns I was just falling into not even realizing it was the source of my struggles with anxiousness and worry. I realized the important of speaking truth and life over my life. As I have been in truth and hearing the word, spending time with God, replacing old thoughts with truth, I have felt more like myself! Speak life over your life!!! Life and death is in the power of our tongues.
Anyway, so yeah that’s where I am at. Processing and working on writing my book. So pray for me friends, pray that the Lord will give the inspiration and words to put in this book for it to be an encouragement to anyone who reads it! I am super excited to work on this and just enjoy life and this next season God has for me!
And thank you again, sooooo much for the support throughout my journey overseas. The commenting on blogs, reading them, praying for me, and everything else, was such an encouragement to me while I was out on the field. And of course to those who donated for me to even do this. THANK YOU.
Much love, T.
