Moving internationally

No matter how far you move its always a little crazy. Those last minute things thrown into a box - the teary farewells and the exciting hellos to somewhere new. Sometimes I feel like our family has taken on moving to a new level ! Or maybe its become a hobby?! We've lived in a different house the past four years in a row. Before that there were 3 continents as a family - plus one more that I lived on of my own. What in the WORLD? Yes, we've been in the world.
The variety of these homes and lives by way of individual cultures is something to either just forget or perhaps to study psychologically. I occasionally analyze it with my own brain and become overwhelmed. And I become comforted to realize that we are anything but alone. There are those who stay put in one home/village or city their entire life and I have reached a point in life where I am very impressed with those who do. And we know LOTS of people who are like us - doing the international thing. AND, we like it too :)

So today I tried to sit back and explain to the kids that we are " unterwegs" ( great german word for being along our way) to moving to a different country. And I TRIED to impress upon them the magnitude of it all. Last summer we packed up a few scattered things from my sisters house where we had lived for an entire year and moved into " our new home!" - for exactly 12 months. The summer before that we arrived from from Germany all deutsch sprechenende and alarmed at the fast pace of the americans. The summer before that found us stopped at the border between Canada and the USA and denying Stefan a proper entrance so we lived with my parents for 2 and a half months. The summer before that......was the BIG MOVE away from our home in Malawi to begin anew. ( which incidentally took 3 flight cancellations and 4 tries due to a virus) So what are we doing this summer? Moving back to Malawi.....its INSANE but AMAZING.....all at the same time.

So how DOES one move internationally? Well, you stuff your bags to their fullest which is minimal in comparison to most material posessions of moves within one country. You pack your ever growing children into an airplane and beg of them to sleep which they don't and realize a week later you forgot to use the last minute MUST purchase melatonin to aid in their 7 hour time zone change. You patiently try to remember that its hard for them TOO to suddenly be thrust upon a new language, new foods and that they actually DONT remember living here as easily as we adults do cuz it was just two years ago and so crying about having to drink fizzy mineral water is something to understand. OH and then we remember that this isn't the destination - just the visit so take deep breaths. SHARE with everyone along the way the MINISTRY which is taking you on this move - eat some shokolade - continue to let the kids survive on shokolade 'cuz only Benjamin and Stefan like leberwurst and drink a weissbier and remember how exciting it all is which is why its okay that you are carrying a huge bag of dirty clothes which can't be washed since most germans don't have a dryer and the cold rainy weather isn't getting the one load of wash you did do quite dry yet. It'll be OKAY if we pack damp clothes on an international flight. Afterall the shoes that were forgotten in Stuttgart made it by Express post the day before we are to leave and that's awesome ! And we take time to appreciate our blessings and the ability to live IN the world and SEE the world but not be OF IT....thank goodness. And HE will keep guiding us - even on the Autobahn - at 180 kmh. So here we go.....Tschuss Deutschland - onto our destination - THE RETURN TO MALAWI ! Looking forward to it ! We are blessed and the kids, btw, are doing GREAT !!!


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