Memories & Musings...

Today I opened up my Facebook feed and there in the "On This Day", were these two photos.  That brought back so many memories!!  They were taken the evening we flew into the Flint, MI airport on our return to the US for our first furlough.  We had been in Ecuador for about 2 1/2 years, and there was a large group from our Home Church, waiting to greet us.  They had a big banner and balloons for the girls.   

In this photo, you see my Mom holding my youngest (at the time), my Dad in the background holding onto the balloons, maybe talking to my oldest, (not sure) and I'm there with my middle daughter, who seems pretty excited/overwhelmed by it all.  In the background there are a couple girls from the church, taking down the banner.

This photo is my Dad with my youngest, (again at that time), with a very sweet lady from the church in the background, along with my middle daughter.

I love these photos because there is so much love and joy in them!  They also tell a bit of a story! Leaving home/country/culture is a sacrifice for a missionary.  We do it because we sense God's leading and calling and don't get me wrong, we don't do it, "screaming and kicking".  No, we feel blessed and there is a lot of joy in serving the Lord where he leads you.  Our family has been overwhelmingly blessed to be able to live and work in Ecuador.

But what these photos tell is not so much the sacrifice the missionaries make, but that there are others that are sacrificing, too.  Many of you know that I am an only child.  So when Tony and I went to Ecuador, not only did my parents lose the opportunity to have daily contact, and dare I say to experience even the "mundane" events of daily family life with their only daughter, they also gave up that relationship with their only grandchildren.  I knew in my head that it was a sacrifice for them, (and the rest of our extended family that lives here in the US) but I never really understood it in my heart, until our 3 daughters grew up, and moved back to the States...then our own grandchildren started arriving.  

Now my parents did an AMAZING job of staying connected with my children.  In the early years,(remember this was all before internet, email, Skype, etc.) They would write and send cards regularly. We would take turns calling each other.  They would call us once a month, and we would call them once a month...so we got to talk on the phone twice a month.  That was back when it cost A LOT to call internationally, and for us, it could sometimes take a couple days to get the call to go through.  We would have to call an operator... give them the number we wanted to call...hang up... when they got the call through, the phone would ring again.  Once the call was finished the operator would call back and tell us how long we talked and what the cost of that call was.  Most of the time the call back with the connection was just a few minutes, BUT, I do remember it sometimes taking a day or so.  They also made trips down to see us, twice our first term there, and a few more times before the girls graduated from high school.   Also once we got email, we would write each other everyday(seemed like an amazing thing at the time)... and as internet capabilities improved, communication became even more frequent.  

Still being a framed photograph on the wall and a voice on the phone, or even a person on the other side of the computer screen, in the case of Skype or Face Time, is a far cry from being present in the every day.  Experiencing even as I mentioned before, just the mundane activities of life...being able to eat supper together, or Sunday dinner.  Having the opportunity to have the grandkids over for a sleepover... or be there to watch them after school for an hour or two.  It is through those things that you build a relationship...you get to really know them and they get to know you.  When you don't have those opportunities, the relationships just aren't the same.  I'm not saying that you don't or can't have a relationship, I'm just saying it's different...and it's something you sacrifice.  

I'm so thankful that my parents love God and love me so much that they were willing to make that sacrifice.  NEVER. ONE. TIME. have they complained to us, or asked us to do something different. I know that God has blessed them and has blessed us in so many other ways, and I am thankful for that, but today's post is just about recognizing that it IS a sacrifice, and it's not always easy.