Always Learning {The Grove: Learn}
Every year of living overseas keeps revealing more deeply that to live overseas is to be a lifelong learner. What you thought you knew about God, the world, people...
Category: Change/Transition
When You Hide in Your Baggage
I left my beloved boarding school in Germany and my parents’ home on the field in France when I turned eighteen. I was headed to college in a new...
How to Welcome Her Back
Your loved one is coming back! After time in a place you couldn’t pinpoint on a map before she fell in love with it, she’s coming home. You will...
How to Say Hello When You Have an Aching Heart
Goodbyes feel like death because they are death. Goodbyes are the death of what has been. It will not be again. Even if you see this place, this person...
You say “Hello” and I say “I’ll Stay”
Sometimes the greatest culture shock we experience comes from our interaction with other expats and teammates on the ground. We have just arrived, have a thousand questions, and don’t...
Goodbyes are Awful {The Grove: Goodbye}
I was ten years old for my first, genuine goodbye. Our church prayed for us before we left for our initial move to Mongolia. I sobbed on the sanctuary...
A More Complicated Story
A few months ago, while we were back in the States for the holidays, a dear friend asked me how I thought I had changed since moving to Australia....
Loving Our Kids Through Transition
“Mom, I really miss my friends.” We’d moved to the Middle East a few months before, and my oldest – then 3. 8 years old – was really struggling...
Stewarding Yourself During Change
I feel like a farce. I am attempting to write an article on stewarding ourselves well. But as I write, my life is nothing close to an acrobat gracefully...
Awakened From Comfort
Tonight as I write, I sit before my TV version of a crackling fire, the only type of fire afforded to us who live in small and borrowed spaces. I...
