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Autism: our mess, God’s message

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The emotions of packing up and leaving have made my mind raw, and I’ve had random crying spells sprinkled in among times of profound gratitude. There’s nothing quite like loss to make you appreciate what God has gifted. And there really is a sense of loss—a counselor once explained that it’s called “Ambiguous Grief” because no one has actually died and in theory we can always come back and see people again. It’s not the same as when my dad died back in 2016. But we all know it won’t be exactly the same ever again, even when we do come back, and until then Kenya is really far away and FaceTime is not the same as face time. But I digress.  After an amazing week in Oregon, we are now back in Central Ohio for our last hurrah, hanging out with our adult kids. And when people say adult kids are the best, they aren’t kidding! Anya and Everett are killing this adulting thing, hosting Omara and Isaac and feeding us all for the week. Anya even woke up early and made a gluten-free lunch out of no
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Dreaming-1, Doing-0

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 Chad tells me that a concerned friend took him aside to check in on me. “It almost sounded like she was serious when she said she loved moving. What’s up with that?!?” So Mark, this one is for you.  Yes. I said I love moving. Remember—the adventure, the newness, the starting over with all the possibilities open? SO much fun. But I learned something new this past few weeks that came to a head just yesterday. I love the IDEA of moving. I do NOT, in fact, love the logistics of moving.  In fact, I hate it. I despise it. You might go as far as saying I abhor it.  Let me count the ways. 1. I hate putting my stuff on FB marketplace for the world to see, only to have obvious scammers immediately beg to buy it if only I’ll give them my number for their husband to arrange details of pick up. I still haven’t figured out their angle, but after a few go-arounds, I started immediately recognizing it and telling them sweetly that “trying to scam people is not kind”. They never responded to that. 2.
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Back to Where it all Began

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Picture this... A 14 year old girl from Oregon, smart but insecure. Likable enough, but too reserved to really be cool. Later voted 'Most Likely to Succeed' A 15 year old boy from Ohio who would choose getting a laugh over getting an A any day of the week. Later voted 'Class Clown'.  That was us, proving that opposites do attract, and that high-school sweet-hearts can last! And it all went down in Kenya, back in the dark ages of 1991-1995, when thank goodness we didn't have social media to document all our shenanigans! We left Kenya when we graduated high school, certain that we would never be back.  After we married in 1998, life has taken us all over: a year in Oregon, seven in Ohio, then a few in Washington state. Off to Malawi, then Kenya, then North Carolina and back to Ohio. In our 25+ years of marriage, we've moved too many times to recall. And can I tell you a secret? One that really exposes my crazy??? I love moving.  For real! It's messy and exhaus
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Still finding faith in the same battle-7 years later

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I started this blog decades ago (!) when we were first headed to Africa with our 2 young children. I anticipated adventures that I would enjoy sharing, and indeed we had all sorts of adventures! We spent 3.5 years in Lilongwe and added 2 kids to our crew. Then we all spent another 5 years in Nairobi, Kenya where we had more adventures--both the good and the hard kind. Our beautiful, adventurous young teen Anya was living her best life there. Our tender reed of a son, Ethan, was not. The demands of school and the loss of friend after friend to mission-life transition almost broke him. Silly little 1st grade Isaac and salty but loving pre-school Omara just went with the flow. And we made the heart-breaking decision to take a leave-of-absence from Kenya. That leave-of-absence turned into resignation as it became clearer that God was directing us to stay in the US to support Ethan. Let me be clear--it was one of the most painful things we have ever done. You can read more about it here  a
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Grass is grass, no matter what side of the fence it's on

So I discovered I still had some lurking 'premeditated resentments,' and I didn't even realize it until it was too late! I assumed that setting up house would be easier in America than it had been in Kenya. I assumed that emails telling me to pay my bill would pay my bill if I obeyed and clicked HERE. I assumed that hot water heaters were electric. I assumed that $80 in kooky-sounding flours would allow me to bake again, gluten-free. Instead, we discovered the sellers had just cut the hoses close to the tap when they couldn't get the old washing machine tubes off. At midnight, after a week of VBS, Chad said, "Let me hook the washer up real quick for you." We all know those are famous last words! The twist of a wrench, the snap of metal, the spray of hot water, and Chad's calm voice calling out, "Miriam...we're doing this again!" And the saddest part was, I knew exactly what he meant. I gathered up the same towels, which I had wash
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Location: Hilliard, OH, USA
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Water falls on the just and the unjust...

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Just as I said  last week , Tuesday turned into Wednesday. I LOVE it when things are predictable! At 10am, most wonderful friends showed up at the church, and we drove up with a 17-ft Uhaul. By 11:30 we were all loaded up with no place to go. Closing wasn't until 2pm. But God. God is an expert at blessing with most unexpected blessings, and the old owner of the new house texted our agent and said, 'go ahead and move in whenever you want, as long as you're sure you're actually buying the house at 2pm.' As long as I'm sure????? Wild horses from the hills of Yakima couldn't keep me from signing those papers at 2:00!!!!! Pshaw!!! So we drove over to the house, and everything we owned (minus a few boxes at our friends' where we had been living) was unloaded and put in the right rooms by 1:30pm! God knew my heart's desire was to sleep there that night, and He made it possible.  We went to our signing all sweaty and nasty--figured they wa
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All ready but not yet

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Today is Tuesday. And in the wonderful way of the world, that means tomorrow is Wednesday. And Wednesday is when we close and move into our new-to-us house! I'm just a tad excited!!! I've spent the last few weeks trying to keep myself sane with Internet sales, Craig's List, and my new bff, Ikea. And when I wasn't browsing possible purchases, I was getting my nesting-needs out by helping our friends-and-hosts organize their cupboards and sun-room and garage. Anya joined in and she emptied out an old shed to turn it into a play-house, and we built new patio stairs with reclaimed wood and a pallet we found on the side of the road. I always swore I'd be more crafty if only I had a Home Depot, so now I get to try and live up to my ideal self! The storage area of the church now contains 2 couches, 4 beds, mattresses, towels, bedding, boxes of books and baking dishes. Two tables, 12 chairs, and winter clothes. Boxes of donated things I haven't even looked through
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Location: Hilliard, OH, USA
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