Being Home

After my last post in August, the internet cafe was closed and never opened until after I left in January... that's why the last months have not been documented. I have been back in America for over 3 weeks now and it has been an interesting and emotional journey! I want to share with whoever you are that actually reads this, a bit of my re-entry experience thus far and I also am going to post blogs with excerpts from my journal that I wrote while I was in Ghana.

Before I talk about my "re-entry" I want to share about the most difficult part of being away for so long (it's actually related to the re-entry thing). I am a VERY relational person. Anyone who knows me well knows that I value my relationships with others. Being a world away from the people closest to me for such a long time was hard for me especially because there was so little communication going on. I realize that life goes on whether or not I am around (I wouldn't expect it to be any other way). For everybody back home, I was one person out of MANY that was no longer there. For me, I was taken away from EVERYONE. I felt like for them I was "out of sight, out of mind" and for me, "distance made the heart grow fonder". I think I actually cared more about the details of people's lives from Ghana than I ever did while I was home... It was very hard for me to open my email once a week to an empty inbox, especially when I took the time to write personal emails to people. Christmas was especially difficult while I spent the month of December seeing the other people on my team receive cards and gifts and I didn't get a single thing. It was harder than I thought it would be. I truly felt forgotten. I don't say this to make anyone feel guilty, in fact that's precisely why I saved this for my return, but I do want everyone to know how EXTREMELY IMPORTANT it is for people overseas to have communication with friends and family at home. Even the little one-liner email or facebook comment would make my day.

For anyone who knows anyone overseas, I urge you to communicate with that person! I know how it is being on the other side. When my dear friend Harmony was in Peru, I regret to admit that I would get the prayer updates and not read them right away, if at all, and I was horrible at keeping in contact. Being in Ghana and experiencing what she must have felt was a huge slap in the face for me. I know that life is busy and we really don't even THINK about or realize how important this is. So I am being an advocate on behalf of all missionaries and anyone living overseas or even in another state. They NEED to hear from you. Anything, no matter how long or short, just let them know that they are not forgotten. It's very important because being disconnected from home sucks!

So, for me, coming home has been emotional. Like I said, I had very little communication with friends and family during my year in Ghana. When I came back to the U.S. I was overwhelmed with all the people who came to see me. It was so good to reconnect, but if I could choose between having people come to my house when I got home or having a two-sentence email once a month while I was in Ghana, I would have chosen the later hands down... Again, I don't say this to make people feel guilty because I know what it's like to be on the other side as well, but to hopefully make people think about these things because I do think that it's not that we forget, but we just don't even THINK about this! So if you have a loved-one overseas, take the time to send a short email, or even better, real mail to let them know they are loved.

I'm not trying to be a downer, because I have absolutely loved re-connecting with everyone. I am still on a journey. Coming back is hard because everything is so different from what I've gotten used to, and I would still truly value your prayers during this time of re-adjusting to life here in America.