Asking the Questions
Tonight, S and I began the process of thinking through how this trip might affect our lives when we return to Northern Virginia.
Our current hosts graciously offered to keep our kids for a night … so here we are at an awesome resort … just the two of us … saying things like “I can’t believe we’ve been married almost 20 years.”
Also: What does this trip mean for carving out family time when we return? What have we learned about freedom and space for our boys? What have we learned about trust? About Trust? How will the profound degree of hospitality extended to us on this trip change our thinking about inviting people in to our home? What does it mean to have met so many people touched with a Vision for Life? How do we deepen connections between family, faith, and work?
We’re grateful for this journey … and for this time tonight to spend together, asking these questions.
Jim and Suby,
Thoughts and prayers for your family go through my mind each time I see a post. I also save them for a time in my day when I am alone and can reflect. It is like my dessert :)
About the hospitality thought, it quickly reminded me of that first year we were in No Va and you had your community group and gracious hospitality flowed from your home to new comers. We are grateful for that short season and thankful for the lasting friendship.
Love to you all and thank you for your faithfulness in writing your blog.
Love, Susan
Thank you for bringing us along on your journey! You have opened our eyes to new ways to explore the world and better inform our kids. Can’t wait to hear more in person when you return. Perhaps you might meet my colleagues in Cambodia?
Awesome
Beautiful. Enjoy your date night! Love to you guys.
I think a book is next. I hope a book is next. I would read a book! I have just finished a book called 360 Degrees Longitude, about a family that traveled around the world for a year. I enjoyed reading it at the same time as I’m reading your words – but as I read, I thought – Suby and Jimmy write so beautifully, I wish this was their book.
Yes, yes, yes, a book! I would love to read it. I also thought an advent book made of the photos you took, that one is almost ready to be published :) Sorry, I realize I am also putting pressure but hopefully encouragement.
…and to think that you thought about calling it quits after Barcelona…it seems that now you are so grateful that you didn’t end it early. We miss you all here in Sleepy Hollow and can’t wait for your return!
Soooo grateful for the friends who took care of your kids so you could finally go spend that Date Fund we gathered for you before departure! What a crazy wonderful gift those friends bestowed on you. (Btw, are you at the Four Seasons Chiang Mai resort? Looks like it to my eye, though my memory is fuzzy, full as it is now with strip malls and schools and things just so different from our Asia years!)
Hospitality (paying it backward, in your case?) would be a logical blessing from the trip. An intentional commitment to family time, too. And many other outcomes and changes and new purposes that the Lord is starting to show you. Love the picture of you two opening to those possibilities together, in the Thai tropics. So thrilled for this pressing of the pause button.
In our travels I have found reverse culture shock to be the most challenging part of our lifestyle. It will hit you in ways you do not expect. Praying for your eventual re-entry to the U.S. Or you could always join the Foreign Service! ;-)