#missionarylife // a 3 year old's view

It never ceases to amaze me the grace with which our three year old handles the missionary life we lead.  The kid is just a little bit over three and has been on (literally) 29 different airplanes.

Answered Prayers

It's been ages.  I apologize.  But ohmygosh I had no idea how fast life would become after hitting the tarmac at Charlotte Douglas International.

So here's a quick recap - remember our list?
Here are just a few (amazing) ways we've been checking it off.

Rest & Refreshment - 
Phoenix for 2 months + a pool in the backyard.  'nuff said.  :)

This Post Has Not Yet Been Rated

The following are random things I don't want to forget, but they may be a little.... erm.... vivid for some readers.  Especially non-parents.  Just consider this fair warning.

So we've lived in Tanzania, East Africa for the past year and our son refused to pee in the bush.

A Waitress Named Holly

We had been driving for over 6 hours.  It was about 7:30.  We hadn't had an actual meal since the night before, and that was Disney Land food - soup in a bread bowl for me and a box of chinese for hubby.
We pulled off at the only exit with food that we'd seen in miles and our choices were Logan's Steakhouse (too $$), Mimi's Cafe (not good dinner food and $$) and Olive Garden.  So we went with Olive Garden.  We sat down and started trying to finagle the menu to feed the three of us for $25 or less.  It was grueling.  Honestly.  We went back and forth over several different combinations of options, remarking under our breaths at how the prices had gone up since our last visit over a year ago.
After (what seemed like) an hour Owen & Bill went for a walk to get O's energy out (riding in a carseat for 6 hours, remember?) and the waitress walks over.  She'd been extremely patient with my "one more minute..."  "um... just a couple more minutes" requests and this time she says, "Wow, you were taking so long they left, huh?!" with a little laugh.
"No," I replied with a smile, "We've been in the car for the past 6 hours and the little one needed to run around a bit."
She asked where we were headed/coming from and I told her we'd just been to Disney and were heading back to Phoenix.
She asked if we were from there and I told her that no, we were from North Carolina.
She asked, "Oh, you were born in North Carolina?! What brings you to Phoenix?"
"It's kind of a long story," I replied, having no idea how to condense what our lives were into a few short sentences.

Pen + Prayer

I've believed in the power of prayer for most of my adult life, but it's only recently that I'm realizing the power that can be released when a pen is added to the equation.
Let me back up...    

When we learned we had to leave our home in Tanzania earlier than originally expected, I resolved (in my head) to write down a list of 'needs' and a list of 'wants' - goals for our trip that we'd pray over.  Well, one thing after another kept happening, and between traveling, jet lag, moving houses only a couple days after landing, the surgery/procedures, it got a little crazy.  It seemed every spare 'adult' moment we had we spent

Some Random Things

I still (after being here nearly a month) can't get over how:
The food (in stores) is more expensive and in much smaller packages than it was when we left, but the (majority) of people (in stores) are still getting larger. Hm.

I love the way Owen says, "Foo's" for "Who's"

When Owen was a baby he used to purse his lips together and blow a raspberry whenever he got hurt. Now, he calmly says, "hurt, Hurt, HURT, HURRRRT" in a progressively louder voice until it reflects the amount of pain he's in. He rarely cries, unless he's been embarrassed or is really, really hurt.

I miss not having to worry about ingredients in food.

Our Son Loves McDonalad's

Yes, you read that correctly.  Today we took our three year old to McDonald's for the first time.  Ever.  He loved it.  What kid wouldn't, right?
He climbed, he played, he slid down the slide, he bounced in the little sphere thing, and about ten minutes later came out, walked over to us and said:
"Hey! Momma!  I think there's a restaurant here, did you know that?!"

Observations

On our first furlough in the States since our move to Tanzania, I've been making several observations.  Some call it reverse culture shock - and I suppose that's what this is to some extent, but I'm not really all that shocked.  I knew from past re-entries that we would experience these things, but I guess that being away for nearly 10 months heightens the response?  Who knows, in any event, here are some observations:

1) Consumerism/Commercialism.
Wow.  That's all the words I can come up with right now.  It seriously wears us out when we shop.  We were in Target for 20 minutes yesterday and it felt like we were there for two hours.

2) Noise.
So. Much. Noise.  Noises we didn't even realize we ourselves were living with only 10 months ago.  Every time the air conditioning kicks on Owen covers his ears for just a moment and gets startled.

Satan Sells Pepsi

I think that Satan must work for Pepsi
because as far as I can tell
he's the one
feeding me these
lies

from the depths of hell