Striving for a God-honoring daily legacy amid life's beautiful adventure.
When we found some stringy egg noodles at the local Chinese store and the tourist shop an hour away had some chopsticks for sale, we couldn’t resist some fun crossing cultures for lunch.
Some of us were more naturals. (I LOVE her confidence.)
And then there was the rest of us…
But it was fun, nonetheless
And definitely a repeat. 😉
To Market, To Market to buy a fat pig
Home again, home again jiggety jig.Â
-Mother Goose
We aren’t in the habit of buying fat pigs like the Mother Goose rhyme may say, but we sure are thankful for our fresh produce market within a 5 minute walk.
All for the equivalent of $9.33USD? Yes, please!
Snacks for all!
You won’t find the pigs complaining.
Bananas to freeze for smoothies.
Look at our happy little produce home, saving counter space. =)
I wanted to share this story with you because I thought you’d enjoy it too. I originally sent it to my sweet friend who also appreciates all things bug-free and clean, but I thought you all would find a smile if I shared this story here too.
“I took the girls on a walk a couple of days ago and we stumbled upon a sewage gutter alongside the national highway. The mucky mud in the gutter was thick and green but in an effort to not get hit by cars, we were closer to it than I would have preferred. And low and behold, my reptile-lover 8-year-old spotted a bunch of tadpoles in all this scum on the side of the road. (Cultural backstory: Mozambicans hate reptiles and dirt.)
So I half-acknowledged Abi’s discovery hoping to drag the crew back home already when my six-year-old asked if she could touch one. …. yeah…. touch one…. We’re standing alongside the national highway with a million people staring at us and she wants to touch a sewage frog?…
Remembering it’s their childhood, “fine,” I said, hoping we could move on. So she pokes one and I tell her not to put her hands in her mouth or near her face until we get home and wash. Natually, at this point everyone else has to touch one and I have a crazy idea when I saw a broken butter tub nearby. Any guess?
Yep, to the audience of passing Mozambicans, this psycho scooped up four tadpoles from the muck and carried them home, holding them out from her body at a distance so none of the sludge would splatter my skirt, to the utter squealing delight of my kids.
The kids came home, we researched info on tadpole care and we are now the proud owners of four boiled lettuce eating scuzz-suckers who now live on our kitchen table. Ha! And this mother is cleaning out their water here at 10p after I’ve been awake since 3:50a because love makes you do some crazy things.
Goodbye reputation in Moz, hello cone of shame. 😉 And to ease both our consciences, we did a good doctor’s scrub when we got to the house because EWWW!!!”
This process even encouraged some self-initiated drawings and recording of directions so we wouldn’t kill our little friends – so bonus school! =)
The story continues as we faithfully fed those little vermins for a few weeks, even transitioning them to a terrarium and protecting them from the cats. Half of them even survived and transitioned to full-grown frogs! Then we let them go in the “Garden of Eden” in our backyard and I held my breath that the dogs wouldn’t eat them and thus horrify my children. We even wet the ground because compassion matters for these squishy friends.
Would I do it again?
Hands down, absolutely.
Would I still think it disgusting?
Hands down, absolutely!
I got the opportunity to return to the Johannesburg area for a women’s conference in the beginning of March.
I had planned to go to this conference months prior to our emergency trip to Johannesburg in December and I was thankful that God had restored my health enough that I could go at nine weeks second post-op.
It was my first time crossing the border without Matt and taking a roadtrip to South Africa with a bunch of wonderful ladies.
Thanks to my buddy and colleague, Liana, we navigated there well and enjoyed a bit of kid free time for a week. Honestly, I didn’t really know what to do with myself with all the free time, but I found some useful ways of enjoying the time.
I even got to visit a dear friend who also happened to be my surgeon during my previous adventure in Johannesburg. Funny how God orchestrates friendship even amongst the most challenging circumstances. While it brought up some triggers, it was such a blessing to get to share a smoothie with a friend who thankfully wasn’t wearing scrubs that day. 😉 She was sick or I would have asked to take a picture together. But I have a feeling there will probably be a next time for a picture. =)
We stayed on a beautiful piece of property with some friends that we partner with here in Mozambique, Palavra da Vida (Word of Life). I even had some added friends join my morning Bible time. The welcome mat was always out! =)
We enjoyed some solid Biblical teaching and refreshment at a conference in Pretoria.
And some fun out with the ladies before returning home.
When we got back to Mozambique, we enjoyed a little time with our team (though we missed our supervisors who are Stateside right now). Matt brought the girls up to the capital where we reunited after a week apart and then after restocking a bit we returned back to Maxixe a few days later.
Of course we couldn’t miss out on a little bit of fun with our teammates there in the capital. =)
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Yay for restock and a pit-stop at the “grocery” on the way home.
It was indeed a wonderful trip and a wonderful homecoming.
It came to us right before bed one night in Johannesburg. I had gotten out of the hospital by the grace of God and finally felt like a human being again. We had moved beyond the survival phase; Matt’s day dictated by hospital visiting hours and mine dictated by pain management and nursing schedule. And now we stood at the doorframe of recovery. Recovery from surgeries, recovery from anxiety and recovery from apartness (hey, I can make up words, this is my blog 😉).
And we lay there processing, for processing for parents often happens at night when small ears are not around. In that land of processing I wandered a bit, smelling the flowers, until I realized what I missed the most: family identity.
See, every transitional reality we have walked through as a family was aided by finding a new sense of us. Each added family member helped to redefine how we do family. Each big change. Each trip. Each adventure. Everywhere we find ourselves laying our heads at night, that time period, grows us into a new layer of family identity.
And it was then and there that we realized that that was true for everywhere except Joburg. We had had three weeks of unavoidable division: me at the hospital, Matt being Superdad and trying to still stay fully aware and engaged with what was going on with me, and the girls bouncing from wonderfully willing person to person, but still finding an identity of just the four of them – Rachael being, many times, the voice of reason and taking on the role of “mom” for her sisters. We had been, for all intensive purposes: scattered.
For healing to happen, we realized that we needed to regroup and find our family identity once again right where we were, in Joburg. So it began with a 1,000 piece puzzle…
Everyone’s hands worked on the puzzle. It helped us not only pass time healing, but also just have a united goal again.
We were determined to finish it. Matt and I worked on sections when the girls were sleeping. Waiting times were filled with sorting pieces. Eden even got pretty good at finding edge pieces. Hannah sorted colors. Abi and Rachael helped Eden collect zebra pieces. And we slowly chipped away at it, even when it was really frustrating, until the final piece was laid. I loved how we all cheered at it’s completion. In hours of focus and teamwork we found a sense of family identity in Joburg.
See, friends? We live in a generally quiet town. With generally quiet evenings filled with time. Time when few are out, risking malaria, among the mosquitos. Time when people return home at dusk and shut down for the nights. Seven hours from fluent English and teammates is where we live. And that’s in no way a complaint, just a reality. And then we came to the big city; busy, loud, full of activity, and everything costs something and even the most wonderful friends that we wanted to see. But it wasn’t until we sat down to that puzzle that we realized how much we just needed a slice of us again. Quiet. Uneventful. A united task. Until completion.
And after the completion comes the very best part: the destruction.
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Family identity is critical. Everyone has a part. Everyone is valued. Everyone is needed.
Together we are better.
When it’s 90+ degrees in your living room in mid-December and you have a friend over you realize there’s no better time to teach a cultural game of …
TWISTER!!!
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The game ended when the four contestants melted into the floor. 😜
– Tis the Season to be sweltering. Fa la la la la, la la la la.
🥵🎄🌋
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