Two Roads

Yesterday international movers crammed nine years worth of living into 11 cubic meters.  If you've ever relocated, you know the experience.  It doesn't matter if your move has been local, intercontinental or international, the experience is the same.

• Sort through your personal belongings to see what needs to be trashed, given away or kept.
• Pack remaining items.
• Relocate, unpack and establish a new normal.

Emotionally, the process is the same.  There is a letting go.  There is separation from your old life to a new normal.  There is the reflecting on what was good, bad and average.  There is the closure of relationships that will inevitably change.  There is also an excitement about a new adventure.  There is the anticipation of what awaits.  There is the discovering of new places, things, and people.

Two roads.

The looking back and the looking forward.

As I sifted through old memory boxes which contained notes from nine-year-old daughters who are now nineteen, passport photos of a thirteen-year-old awkward teen who is now a twenty-three-year-old confident young woman, and the Mother's Day poems of a five- year old ragamuffin, black-haired baby who wouldn't comb her hair to a fourteen year old YouTube viewer of  every beauty tip tutorial ever made ... my heart soared to the heights of sweet, sweet moments that will forever be sealed in this Mamma's heart.  I downsized.  Instead of keeping every little note I kept only the top three.  I put them in a legal-sized envelope.  I packed it away.

I lay in bed thinking of my friends who've become such an integral part of my life.   I smile and cry and laugh.  They have experienced parts of my life that are sacred and wild.  No one else knows the journey like they do.  I have little to show for our travels in this section of life together by way of material things to be shoved in yet another legal-size envelope, but I tuck their precious hearts deeper into my own knowing time and distance is soon to come.

I travel this road of transition with a great number of others.  It doesn't take away the emotion is just puts it into perspective.

Many people have asked us why we are leaving and what will we be doing.  The answer is simple.  We know God has asked us to move.  We will be doing the same thing.  We run a nonprofit mentoring agency called Fahrenheit.  We equip mentors with tools to invest in the lives of others.  We train those who desire to be mentors.  We partner with other organizations who see mentoring as a viable outlet to invest in and build the character of others.  And we do it because it's our calling.  We desire to use our new zip code as a means to better develop financial supporters to help others in countries where mentoring is not a part of the culture.  We desire to influence our native countrymen to see a bigger vision for mentoring where they are ... in the good 'ole U.S.A.

Two roads.

The road that is leading us into emotional waters of closure while also bringing us into the exciting territory of discovery, we move forward.  We move forward because we've walked a long time with God.  He's done nothing but prove His faithfulness toward us.  He's never abandoned us to walk alone.  He's always shown us peace in the midst of transition.  He's a good Father.  And we hold his hand while letting go of others.

Two roads.