Learning the Routine

Our summer's have been marked by two things:  coming and going.  At the end of school, we pack up bags and desires for good hamburgers and head back "home" to Oklahoma.  We live out of suitcases, drink lots of Sonic discounted Happy Hour drinks, spend time with family and friends recounting old memories while making new ones, reflect on what it means to be American and make excuses for eating just one more donut ... one more time.  At the end of our time "home", we get that feeling.  It's a feeling of upset stomach boarding on excitement and nausea.  It's that feeling of saying goodbye again while knowing a new year in our other "home" awaits.  It's so weird.

Parker, Libby and I flew home a week early while my Chris finishes up Fahrenheit work.  We came home two days ago to our clean apartment and felt awkward in what is our "normal".  Things smell different.  Food tastes different.  We are in that place of limbo.  We wait while our brains, hearts and bodies align.  Jet lag doesn't help.  Neither does no AC in 99 degree heat.  However, we know the routine.  I voice what we all feel, "We are not going to give into any feeling we may have in the next 48 hours.  We are tired.  This will all feel normal soon."  The girls nod their heads in agreement while looking through glassy eyes that reflect the emotional ill-at-ease.  We own our feelings.  We just don't pay attention to them right now.  These feelings will not hold us captive.

This is our third year of this pilgrimage.  We learn something new each time.

This year is different.  Transition in the air, we ease into another year projecting hope and standing firm in the knowledge that we are exactly where God has us.  The only thing that doesn't change is what God has told us ... and the knowledge that he holds us while "normal" sets back in ... until it's time to get back on a plane.

Learning the routine,
Christina