Hello and Goodbye

That is kind of how this last month has felt: "Hello PNG ... oh - our month is up. Goodbye, I guess!"

It has been a fast, fast month. I am sitting on our couch looking at our suitcases stacked by the door (I triumphed over our packing yesterday and managed to stuff everything we brought here into two checked pieces, one carry-on, a purse and a back-pack) and wondering how we are already leaving. I am sad, but I am thankful to be homeward bound. Although even as I write that, I feel I am being disloyal to our little yellow Papua-Guinea House, which has definitely become home away from home.

I have two lists in my head. Things I'm looking forward to that I've missed doing while we've been here, and things I've gotten to do in the last month that I am about to start missing. Some of the items or experiences that showed up on each list surprised me. Without further ado ... here they are!

Things I'm looking forward to about going home

• spending time with family and friends
• owning a car
• being able to go outside on my own after dark
• grilling (ok - eating what Mark grills)
• my bed
• having the option of not-from-scratch cooking
  
• our church that is in English and where people don't stare at me when I walk in
• wearing shorts
• not hearing the unearthly sounds that cicadas make - at 6am, very faithfully, each day
• 21st-century internet speed ;)
• things outside of our home/immediate surroundings that I can take Anna to do. We are not normally stay-at-home kind of girls!
• getting things ready for the baby. I have begun mentally nesting :)
  

Some things I will miss

• spending time with our new friends who have become like family already
• the view from my living room
  
• eating fresh fruit and vegetables from Dr Bill's garden just across the yard
• Mark's lunch breaks every day
• taking Anna for walks outside that are punctuated every minute or so by a cheerful "gud mohning", "apnoon", or "gud evening" from Papua New Guinean people wandering around the station
• being able to send Anna outside to play with the neighbour kids!
• listening to the heavy tropical rain fall on our roof while I go to sleep
• hanging laundry on the line
• going to a church where I don't understand most of the words being said or sung, but still see love for Jesus on the faces around me
• a gas stove!
• being forced to slow down the pace of life
• talking to our neighbours over the fence (or across the path, or through the gate, or while our children climb to various heights in the tree)
• the feeling of community; fellowship found in sharing a purpose and ministry here away from all of our homes
  

Neither of these lists are totally exhaustive. But ... it is time to get this little girl fed and dressed, and start loading up our suitcases!