Oh My Heart...

 

Time is flying.... I look at my little baby and I can't believe how quickly time is passing. I look at my oldest son and can't believe he is 7, or that my next is 5 or that my 3rd is 3. The other day Reece asked me why time seems to go so slow when he is bored, but so fast if he is doing something he likes to do.... "That, my son, is a life lesson: time flies when you are having fun!"

Speaking of fun and yet rapidly passing time.... I cannot believe that we are now looking at "weeks" in regards to how long we have in Mexico. My heart is divided - I know that God is taking care of us and that He is ahead of us, leading and guiding. I believe that this next chapter in our life will be a great one - full of blessings and growth and challenges and new opportunities. I know that we will find new friends, make new memories, be involved in all kinds of new things. Yet, at the same time, I can't believe that we are packing up and leaving Mexico. True - we do not know what the future holds - maybe we will call this place "home" again at some point in our future....but we believe that we need to move on as though this is a final good-bye...for now.  

Seven years ago we arrived in this place - we were younger, we were a smaller family (Reece was just 2 and a half months old!), I didn't speak any spanish at all. A whole lot of growth and maturity and life experience and ministry experience and people experience and family experience and marriage experience and parenting experience and team experience and personal experience has been experienced!!! :) We leave this place much fuller and much richer than when we arrived. We have many people to thank for that! In the past days and weeks I have been reflecting about what Mexico means to me, to us. What have I learned from our experiences here? I believe that some of those ideas/concepts/lessons are clear and able to define...and my intention is to process and record them. But I also believe that there are many abstract and valuable things that we cannot yet put a description to - they can't be defined in a bullet point or jotted down in a paragraph. They are much more over-arching and deep reaching. They are truths that have helped to form our identity as individuals, as a family. They are fresh realizations about faith and walking with God. We have been blessed to step outside of our own culture and have been able to learn and see different perspectives and values....and we will carry these things - whether we can define them or not - with us into our next life chapter. We have been changed, I believe, most certainly for the better. I am thankful.

So, although it is quickly becoming a not so favorite thing to do for me - I will begin doing the necessary - the sorting, the sifting, the packing, the organizing...and as I do that, my heart will be full of many memories of this place - this large large City that we have called home for 7 years. Wow. Time flies!