10 months

I could have gotten pregnant and had a baby all in the time I’ve been here and none of you would have seen me at any stage… this is not my way (a horrible way at that) of telling you I’ve had a baby.  To clear the air, I’m baby free, but I have become an aunt twice while being in Rwanda! 

Meet Grady Michael Schmitt

And Layna Jane Terrell

These are both pictures I have taken on Skype while chatting with my seriously technologically advanced niece and nephew!  Praise God for video chat.  I can’t imagine what it would have been like to be a missionary 5-10 years ago and have to rely on email to correspond… even further yet, snail mail!

I have moments, even still, when I experience sadness over being on another continent when even the most minor of changes are happening back home, like the birth of two beautiful babies. Jokes, that was a BIG wonderful change.  I will be back in the states in less than 2 weeks! Woo!  It will be so refreshing and life-giving to spend quality time with people I love, but I am figuring out that lots of stuff has changed since I left on August 1, 2010.  Sisters got pregnant, sisters had babies, friends got engaged, friends got married, people got sick, people passed away, people moved on with life.  It’s not like I live in this fantasy world where I think time stands still in the States because I’m not there.  I’ve experienced a lot of change myself this year that many of you can’t relate to because you didn’t see it as it was happening. My best analogy for this feeling is that change hits like an atomic bomb when you’ve been removed from home for so long.  If I was there during the changes, it would still affect me, but I think it would feel more like a gradual growing flood.  I still am not sure which one is easier to deal with—and the short answer is that both are difficult, but you can see a flood coming, so in my mind, you have some time to prepare for its entry to your life.  A bomb?  Well, I’ve never actually experienced a bomb explosion, but I can’t imagine having any time to process how life will continue after the explosion.  All I’d be able to focus on is the bomb itself.  So, as I think about coming home for a limited time, I am working on preparing myself to process all the changes that have happened without me.