We have started using the "h" word

and it's not the word you're thinking of...

The word home can mean different things to different people. Yesterday we were watching Little House on the Prairie. Selah has a class through Landry Academy, and has been reading through these books.  We watched the pilot, released in 1974. :) We watched as the family said goodbye to grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends.  They would "probably never see them again"

They traveled to the unknown, in search of a dream.  Laura's father didn't want to continue to live hand to mouth. He wanted to own land, a wide expanse of land.  At one point the family gets very close to a town. Ma is elated! Oh to see other people again, and buy what they need. Pa is annoyed. They did not come all of this way to see town. They came to find land. 

Finally the perfect plot is found and house building starts. Ma must help Pa in the building even though she "wasn't built" for the job.  She tires, Pa feels guilty.  He should not have her do the work.  There is no one else to do it. He took her away from her home, her family all she has known.  Ma looks at Pa and says "my home is where you are."

The sentiment is sweet. We like to believe that she thinks this all of the time.

Us? we are just starting to experience things, culture, newness (or not so new), food, etc is really all different to us.  There are some things we like and some things we could do with out. There are a lot of things we are doing without.

How do we decide what home is?  All of the children have a different answer.  No one feels like here is home yet. Will that change? Probably. For now we find ourselves in the middle.  We appreciate both cultures, we dislike some things of both cultures.   As we work through this, we are finding the need to give each other grace.  Life can get messy.

One cool thing about leaving all you know is that you are called to more deeply depend on each other. It has been a blessing to watch my children become better friends with one another.  Does this happen all of the time? Absolutely not!

As you think of us, pray we can find our culture. We need to be dependent on Jesus. We need to find places and times to rest, and times to interact.  We need to find our "home" with each other.  Our home won't look 100% American or 100% Belizean, but it is our prayer that it will be 100% us. We pray that through finding this, we can reach those we've been called to reach.  Thank you for praying with and for us!

(Pictures taken from our monthly trip to renew our visa's, drinking water from a bag, Western Dairies, the Mennonite own ice cream parlor, the map book Zion is studying, and Zion's math today, we had to use coins from here.. it was fun!)