Tuesday, December 17, 2013

All dressed up and no place to go.


That's a saying, right?
That's a not-quite-accurate description of how we feel right now.
We are prepared. Our house is ready, our emotions are ready, our kids are ready, we are trained, we are supported, our lists are checked. And we're at home, waiting, sometimes feeling like we've gotten stood up for a big date.

But, we know that's not true. We know we have some place to go, somewhere God has prepared us for; that He hasn't stood us up in our party dress. So, we continue to live in the meantime. Prepared and being prepared further by the waiting, the trusting, the exercise in patience.

Training at CIT was great. We met great missionaries, had awesome instructors, were loaded up with challenging ideas. Everything was top-notch, and we were sad to leave. While there, holed up in the mountains in an area curiously called the "tri-cities" (I swear I didn't even see one thing resembling a city), we were out of touch with reality. We arrived back to real life and were greeted by snow, homework, and Christmas.

Thanks to Amazon Prime, we are ready for the holidays, and now have one week at home before we head out to see family, meet two brand new nephews, and welcome Ben's parents back from a long trip to India, and then celebrate my brother's wedding in Texas.

Because we're only home for six days of Christmas, there is no tree in our house this year. Thankfully, the kids' teachers at CIT trained them to be flexible missionary kids, and they are satisfied with this version of Christmas.