Finding Faith in the Battle

We are here at the hotel in Portland, ready to fly out at day-break tomorrow. We've said good-bye to our family and friends one more time, and though our hearts are raw, we have survived. We check in tomorrow at 3:30am, and 31 hours later, we'll land in Nairobi, bedraggled and exhausted and very likely grumpy, but alive (we hope). So now, all that is left to do is to say good-bye to those who are neither family nor friend, but who have blessed us nonetheless. 1. Good-bye, dear American drivers. I shall miss your polite manners on the road and the way you always stop at 4-way intersections. You have no idea how you have warmed my heart! 2. Good-bye, oh makers of saran wrap where the metal teeth are sharp enough to actually cut the wrap without turning it into a mangled ball of useless plastic! Cooking with you was a joy. 3. Good-bye, Kroger and Fred Myers and Food4Less. It never ceases to amaze me that you have unexpired milk on the shelf every single time  I've nee...

I was wasting time on the computer while my 3-year old is lying on the floor sobbing because she only wants "Daaaaaaadddy" who is unavailable because he's dropping the other kids off at school. Why I can't make her cocoa makes sense only in her 3-year old mind. But back to the computer... I ran across an old post of mine with the same title, only from the other side of our Stateside! 2 weeks before we left Kenya, 'kind of freaking out'. Which is ironic, really, because it's 2 weeks before we leave the US for Kenya, and I'm back to kind of freaking out! Which suggests that perhaps I spend too much time freaking out!!! But as I was sorting everything we own between 4 piles (pack for Kenya, pack for storage, hand-me-down to cousins, and Goodwill) and reducing my closet down to a pitiful array of a few shirts and a lot of empty hangers, I had a sudden realization...this is HARD!!!!!! I've spent a lot of time focusing on and remembering that this...