Dear Kids,
Well, we've been moved out of the house for a whole week! I can't believe it's only been a week. It's crazy.
It's Saturday morning and the kids are watching episodes upstairs and I'm just catching up on a ton of messages. We've had a good week here at Dani's house! We got settled in the loft room upstairs (Stacy and Walker's room... they were so good to let us stay in there, VERY unselfish of them so we could have more space for the kids and our stuff). We were here with their crew for a few days, but then they left for New York and now we have the run of the house for a few days.
We went hiking with my mission comp (Lynne Caldwell Allred) and her kids on Thursday to Donut Falls. It was beautiful and perfect time up in the mountains! We've been swimming quite a bit this week. Today we are going to be working in the greenhouse for a bit together and then we are going to go see Nana.
It's been strange to be in someone else's house. For the first several days I went into a little bit of a panic mode and kept thinking, "Just go back home. We don't need to do this. We don't need to be moving in this way. Just go home. The kids don't need these experiences. Just go back to what you know and the people you know."
This is REALLY emotionally stretching for everyone right now. We had a GREAT support system in St. George. We were very entrenched in the homeschool community and had wonderful friends. Mesha and her family were down there just down the street and I didn't realize how much I loved having them so close! I was a little bit put out by it at first because I'd been there by myself for so long, but I grew loving it when her boys would just show up and hang out. I really liked that. We had a wonderful community and ward. There were so many things that we were so involved in that I really feel sad about leaving.
I have gained so much empathy for so many situations and people through all of this, especially scripture story people. I have thought about Lehi leaving everything behind a lot. I have thought about his sons and how they walked the same journey but came out of it totally different people. I am praying like crazy that God will sanctify this experience for all of you,... for my kids!
I used to see us traveling and having experiences like this as a goal in our lives, we planted the seed to do something like this when Gabe was just a baby. We talked about living in different places in the world for 6 months at a time constantly and that it was something that we really wanted in our family culture. But now that it's upon us, it feels really scary! There are so many logistics to it, and so much sacrifice. God has had us sacrifice so much... and it feels right and peaceful. But it's also very stretching and it's exercising muscles that we didn't realize that we even needed. But God knows what He is doing with our lives and I TRUST HIM COMPLETELY.
I have a lot of empathy for my pioneer ancestors leaving and going to new places with just their families. I have thought so much about all those who came before who set out with the discovering spirit in order to make it better for their future generations.
I have to come back to the WHY. What is the WHY of what we are doing?
1. It is to follow God's will. FIRST.
2. It is to expose all of you to new cultures and ways of living... but in a way that will cause gratitude in your lives. That will help you appreciate all of the blessings that we have.
3. It is for you to learn hands on what it's like to learn another language.
4. It is for you to see how the church operates in different areas. For you to see how the family of the members of the church are the same no matter where in the world that you go.
5. It is for our whole family to be closer together and not so individualized. Everyone has their things, but I feel like we need more bonding, and this is going to teach us that our home is not the place, but it is the people. Wherever we are, that is home because we are together.
6. Because it's part of our missions on this earth to have a worldwide perspective. We have to know the people of the church all over the world. In my patriarchal blessing it tells me that we will live in communities and that we will be inspiration for people all over the world.
7. Because we follow the promptings of the spirit FIRST. And I hope you can see that in our lives.
8. And because Mom and Dad HAVE to get the spiritually centered podcasts finished!
I love you kids. I love you so much.
Your Mom
No comments:
Post a Comment