Home

Lately I have been contemplating our approaching move (still no visas or set date).  While we are all eager to arrive in Mozambique and begin life there, saying goodbye is rough. Over the last year we have made our home here, and home is never an easy thing to see in the rearview mirror. I always feel like I’m leaving a piece of my heart behind.  But we’re also bringing some of home with us through memories and through experiences that have changed and shaped us into who we are today. 

(driving by some sardinheiras aka geraniums)

(a small fraction of Dona Helena's garden; see the Birds of Paradise and think: Costa Rica)

When we arrived in Portugal everything was blooming, bursting forth in full glory. Every walk past the small gardens of our neighbors up to the car, every pass through the botanical gardens on the way to class, even zooming past gardens on the bus brought forth a sensation of sights and smells that calmed, soothed, and comforted this out-of-place, discombobulated soul.  Over time I began to view them as little gifts from God, reminders of his care for us, even in the littlest ways.  And I was comforted by the memories I found, even as I moved across the world.  Things that, amongst the sometimes overwhelming differences and the challenges that come from being isolated by language barriers, helped me piece life here into a new normal.  There are blue hydrangeas (like at our wedding), deep red geraniums at the windowsills (Grady’s mom and I hung them outside our windows all summer while we lived in WA), nasturtiums clambering over the edges of retaining walls (like home in WA), grapevines leafing out (like the wild ones along the roads in TX), vibrant bougainvillea formed into archways (my favorite in Costa Rica), on and on I could go.  They offer memories of home, connecting my life today with my past, keeping me whole.

(nasturtiums - when it heats up they even get bugs & shrivel like WA)

After a year, Portugal has become home to us.  We have made friends, found a church, picked favorite restaurants.  We know where to find dairy free icecream and which parks are best for kids. You know you’re settled somewhere when you can plan your grocery shopping list aisle by aisle through the store! Diego has good friends at school and favorite activities to do in town. 

(Tulips decorate this Coimbra convent cloister)

And now we are looking at moving again… to make a new home in Mozambique. We are going to sorely miss Portugal, and especially Sr. Luiis and Dona Helena (our landlords) who have treated us like family.  But I am excited to discover: what will God use in Mozambique to bring us smiles? What things will we pass on the street that remind us of our lives in Texas, Tennessee, or North Dakota? What will we fly over that bring back our days in Washington or Costa Rica? And what will swing our hearts and minds back to our time here in Portugal?  As we prepare to leave, the flowers are once again in full bloom, vibrantly proclaiming to me a promise of God’s faithfulness.  So I know God has little gifts in Mozambique already prepared to comfort us, to connect us – both to our past and to our new home that awaits us! And ultimately, all this uprooting and transplanting in our lives draws us closer to The One who helps us thrive in each new setting and our true, forever home that is to come. 

 (a neighbor's garden: chock full of flower eye candy)

(the next door neighbor grows his grapes raised over his parking spot)

(our landlords are growing passion fruit & blackberries along the path)

(out for a walk)

(bougainvillea sighting!)