Humility in the Wilderness
When I moved to Paris from Indiana, I could not have been more caught off-guard by what my life became. While I was confident of the choice I was making, and had walked forward in it (mostly) in confidence, I found myself in the most humbling season of my life. It is simply impossible to […]
My Unglamorous Overseas Life
I used to want a glamorous life, the kind that would attract attention and applause. I was the shy, unseen girl for most of my life, but when I announced I was going overseas I started to feel special. People talked about how proud they were of me when I stood in front of […]
The Gift of Your Eyes
Dear Auntie, We’d eaten dinner and were ready to walk out the door to go shoe shopping that ordinary Sunday evening. I was checking the price of airline tickets, and Miryam was finishing her makeup. You knocked, and I answered the door—to your surprise. You turned down my offer of tea. This was no social […]
The Death of Perfection
I’m a perfectionist. I like rules. I like to know what I am supposed to do so that I can do it right. I don’t like being wrong and I hate looking stupid. So, when scripture tells me to humble myself before God, I’d like to know how to do that. Is it a posture […]
This Grace in Which We Stand
There’s a danger in being honest with yourself. A danger that the honest version of you is grubbier than you would ever dream. More broken. More fragile. More vulnerable to attack, belittlement, shame, and sorrow. This sensation can intensify while living abroad. Cultural transition is already a vulnerable position. When you attempt it alone, the […]
Admitting that I’m Half the Problem
Based on the title of this post, it’s a long shot that you’ll read past this paragraph. But I think this week’s theme Admit creates such a powerful opportunity for us to share together the ways that we’ve been exposed to our own weaknesses and misconceptions. Do I need to spell out the ways we’ve […]
Go Ahead … Invite Yourself Over
I like to think that I am quite the domestic woman, but I really struggled to find my creativity when I moved to SE Asia. I blocked myself from getting on Pinterest because I felt sad that Hobby Lobby was so far away and that the ingredients I was so used to using in comfort […]
A Love Beyond Compare
Hesed is a truth that brings me to my knees in gratitude and worship. Let me explain. One of my friends in China was once in a terrible car accident. I will never forget the description she shared with me later on that first day in the hospital. The doctors weren’t sure if she would survive, […]
Competition: One-Upped!
It was our first summer back in Asia in the country where I had been born and raised. I was a young wife and mother learning to navigate living in familiar territory, except now I was no longer a child, but rather an adult with adult responsibilities. My family had been well known in that […]
Sweat, Spit Up, and a Time to Ask
Sweat and spit up. Those are the two scents that mark my memory of that summer. That summer of a newborn baby, a two year old, and two puttering AC units that barely made a dent in the muggy Chinese air. My baby cried and spit up, cried and spit up, and insisted on being […]
When Life Overseas Blows Your Pride
I stood in the market and stared down at the dairy products. I was determined to buy milk instead of yogurt this time. The trick was figuring out which was which. I started shaking each jug at my ear, listening for the swish of liquid milk or the sludge of thin yogurt. Aware of how ridiculous I […]
Life in a Glass House
The “Glass House” phenomenon, they call it. We are all familiar with it. As strangers in a foreign country, we are a novelty. People want to touch us, talk to us, hold our babies, feel our hair, take pictures with us. They want to watch how we do things. Clothing, cooking, cleaning, child training – […]