(Pictures: Chadian nomads, real nomads; Birthday girl blows out her candles; Grace & Tom)Being a nomad must be rough. We would see them in Chad. They would be trekking across the arid landscape on their camels. Pots, bedding and tent poles would be hanging off their animals’ backs as they traveled from place to place. With everything they owned, always moving in the hot sun. Never completely at rest.
Technically we are not nomads, but we have had a little insight into their lives lately. We have had several homes over the past year and these past few weeks have seen a lot of movement. We were in Missouri for the end of December and we leave for California tomorrow. Before, after and in between we have been in Massachusetts, and whenever we are here, we spend our time split between two homes about an hour apart. Three days here, four days there.
So we always have things packed in bags. We are often getting our clothes out of a suitcase. We are almost constantly transitioning. Whenever we wake up in the middle of the night, we have to reorient ourselves and ask, “Where are we?”
We are nomads not in a perpetual search for water or grazing land for our livestock, but in an attempt to maintain relationships. We only have a month and a half in the States before heading back to Africa, so we want to make the mos
t of our time. We want to see all our friends and family and spend time with them. We want to share Grace with them and strengthen our connections with our loved ones. So we don’t begrudge being nomads, though sometimes it is tiring. We wouldn’t do it differently.PRAYERS ANSWERED
We made a big dent in our to-do list and accomplished all the critical things we needed to get done before going to California. Megan’s birthday is today! Grace continues to be a happy baby- she has learned to clap this week, loves to stand and has started to skooch backwards (perhaps not intentionally). She is a joy everyday.
PRAYERS REQUESTED
We fly tomorrow to California. Pray for our travels and our time with family and friends on the west coast. We are buying our plane tickets back to Africa and getting things ready for leaving. Pray for all the details.
