Mexico in the Rearview

It felt surreal to cross into the States and know that we would not be going back over it again for a full year! I watched the big border sign with the name of the country we call home disappear in the rearview mirror and it was time to embrace the reality of our home assignment time! 

Our last few weeks in Mexico were much more stressful than we had anticipated when we found out that we had to lose our house. This was a big surprise to us and flung us into a chaotic two weeks of scrambling to fully move out of the house we had called home for five years. It was a lot of work! At one point amid the craziness, Iris sighed and said, “I feel like I could wake up one morning and find that this had all been a bad dream.” Even though it was a very difficult few weeks, we are so grateful for all our friends who helped us in different ways! Some willingly took plants to plant-sit for the year, others offered to care for our pets, some brought us meals and many others helped us physically move our things to storage. We could not have done it without them! 

Several groups and individuals very dear to us were kind enough to throw us goodbye parties and make the extra effort to come hug us goodbye one last time. We were humbled and encouraged by everyone’s kindness as we prepared to leave. We will miss them all!

And so, having been delayed by one day, we finally made it across the border into the USA with our vehicle loaded to the brim with everything we had packed for our year-long home assignment time in the States. Thank you, Lord! 

The first stop on our trip was to my parent’s house in New Mexico. We enjoyed spending a day with them before starting our trip up to Michigan. (Picture: Saying goodbye to Family!)

We took about a week to travel to Michigan in order to stop and visit two very special families. We enjoyed a few days spent with our coworkers from PNG and another couple who discipled us during our missionary training and have remained dear friends. It was so wonderful to spend time with these people who are like family to us again!

Our arrival to Michigan was very humbling as we saw that our mission team (and many others from our sending church) had worked hard to prepare the house we would be living in. It was such a blessing to see the furniture and household items that people had donated to provide us with a home for the year. We are incredibly grateful for God’s perfect provision and for the generosity of our brothers and sisters in Christ!

And so it began! Our year in the USA. It has certainly been an emotional roller coaster as we said goodbye to Mexico and are now in the process of adjusting to a totally different context that we haven’t been in for a really long time. For the kids especially this has been and will continue to be a huge adjustment. We know God has a lot of things to teach us during this time and we are thrilled to see how He desires to work as we dedicate this time to rest and reconnection with our friends and supporters here in the States! Thanks for your prayers for us.