Autumn in MO

We finished up our time in Oklahoma, and are now back at the Missionary Training Center in Missouri for a few weeks to complete our Linguistic write-up of the Cherokee Language. That means, of course, that we are actually back in OUR. HOME. Whaaat? 

This girl has SOO enjoyed being back (first time since May). Since we got back a week ago, there have been moments when I actually start to believe we lead somewhat “normal” lives…but that feeling never seems to last very long.

Here’s a glimpse of some of the things we’ve enjoyed now that we’re home:

Art projects on our child-proof table

Baking with my favorite sous chef. (He does make the most delightful-looking frosted pumpkin cookies I’ve ever seen)

Fishing. We live close to a lake here, and we’ve missed this. Hudson has been asking to go fishing for months.

And oh yes, I mustn’t forget about the write-up. We have spent hours upon painstaking hours every day at this desk working through our data. Lots of info to analyze. Lots of nerdy discussions regarding vowel length, pre-glottalized consonants, and what to do with that pesky voiceless lateral fricative.

We went to a fall festival last weekend with some good friends. This will be our last Autumn both north of Texas and outside the tropics (read: last true Autumn EVER), so I am relishing the Fall colors that are starting to set in (and enjoying my fill of apple cider and pumpkin cookies).

I’m also relishing these last few weeks at “home” (it’s funny how that term can be so fluid for missionaries). Three weeks from now, we’ll pack up the apartment and head back “home” to Texas, where we’ll be until we make the move to Asia Pacific and set up our new “home” there.

On a more heartfelt note, sometimes I find myself (perhaps it’s the Mama in me) wanting to cling to an idea of what a “home” should be. But, it’s when I remember that, as a Believer, my real home is not in this world, that I feel set free to do without and head into a lifestyle that surrenders those things that my humanity wants to cling to. I definitely wouldn’t be able to do it without the “secret” Paul speaks of in Philippians 4:12-13.

But. As long as I have them, I will still thoroughly enjoy the Fall colors, our cider-and-pumpkin-scented apartment, and the memories we make here.