The truck finally came. We saw our memories and hospitality aids unpacked and placed on bare floors. It’s amazing what you forget you have in two months as well as what your kids grow out of in said time! We try and strategically fit our old stuff into our new home. We find out what was broken and sadly, what was stolen. How are we going to make all this work?
What goes on in our material world has been going on in our mental and spiritual world as well. How are we going to make this new place work? New friends, new neighborhood, new church, new food, new climate, new bugs? How are we going to arrange our lives into this new place? We are in a totally new world as we are nobodies. There are MANY chaplains here. There are many churches that have many people serving. Everyone speaks English and everyone has family and/or friends nearby. Where should we place our lives in this new home? How much rearranging do we need to do?
In the midst of this rearranging Barrett is getting ready to deploy for a long time. How will this new normal work? We have been trying to set up our house, medical care, dentistry, and school community as well as getting him situated in his new command before he leaves. This has made us back porch neighbors instead of front porch neighbors. We send our kids out to play but have no idea who their friends are, let alone their parents. Who is going to be their new friends? Who is going to be mine? I feel like I still am moving these boxes around. After all, these people don’t need us really, they already have their community. Overseas living forces you to make friends with everyone fast in order to arrange your support, the ability to choose is gone. You simply make it work. Here we can disappear.
A bright spot in the chaos and stress has been the church we found. Overseas you major on the majors and let the tertiary issues wane to make it work. Here, there are so many churches that we can be choosy. We found a church where the congregation is so like-minded that we disappear once again! But in a good way. Our theology matches perfectly with their doctrinal statement and even their theology books mirror our home library. Plus the diversity of colors allows our family dynamic to feel normal. And they SING! They sing boldly, loudly, and with conviction! I’m sure that heaven shakes with the praise each Sunday. This box, this box is definitely in the right place.
We are in the fine tuning of settling in. The last few pictures need to be hung and then the tool box can return to the garage. We have kids entering the house to play and I have met a couple of parents by sitting outside to read. Barrett is getting his uniforms ready to leave as well as setting aside things to bring on the ship. Our church made it a point to interview us, get us in a small group, and make us members before he leaves so they can provide the full church support we will all need when he’s gone. By the way, the pastor is Puerto Rican and we had him over for rice and beans already. Why do I mention this? Because even in the midst of chaos, turmoil, transitions, and feeling like we are nobodies, the Lord has seen us. He has given us Puerto Ricans, African Americans, and Okinawan friends to encourage our hearts. He even allowed me to overhear people speaking Thai in the commissary so I could spend 10 minutes being encouraged by the Captain of the Thai military and his family who is stationed in DC for 3 years. He left me his business card but more than that, the Lord used that tiny moment to let me know He sees me and puts the old stuff from the box in the perfect place in our new home. He truly is El Roi, the God who sees me.