Little did she know...

a year ago i was excited to the point of no sleep, checking off endless mental lists, second guessing packing, wondering what in the world i had gotten myself into, so stoked to be getting on a plane to Joburg.  nothing i had read or watched or asked about could prepare me for the exchange of Google maps for tangible streets. i spent some exciting days at SIM headquarters in Charlotte, NC getting debriefed and prayed for and encouraged and cautioned and discipled in preparation for leaving the US and being immersed in a different culture halfway across the world. i was about to leave the country and the people that i knew best for a whole different way of life. at the start, three months seemed like a forever long period of time. however, by the last week of craziness in the life that i had adapted to, three months seemed like i had blinked and suddenly it was over. nothing had prepared me for coming. nothing could prepare me for leaving. it was one of the hardest weeks of ...

So, I have this problem. An addiction, if you will. It starts with "t" and rhymes with "gravel." I have been going through withdrawals a lot recently, especially since I realized that this is the longest consecutive time in the last year that I have not been in an airport. (i know, i know, first world problems)  Since I have been obsessing over photo blogs, travel magazines, reminiscing to the point of annoying, creeping fb pictures and looking over my own pictures to the point of memorization, I thought I would post the highlights from trips I was able to make last year. There are a lot of pictures. Be forewarned. Brasil: technically not last year. it was, in fact, Dec. 2010, but it was the first of many trips to follow. I didn't know then that I would be going back to Brasil in just 7 months.  The Pierre and I went to visit my brother and his fam that I had not seen for two years. Never did a hug feel so good. And never did 2 people have so m...

These days it sneaks up on me, this heart-aching nostalgia for the people and the places that I said goodbye to over three months ago. It's not like I don't have constant reminders of the little people that invaded any sort of privacy I assumed I had. Their pictures are on display all over my house. Their voices and faces are easily summoned from my netbook. And the soundtrack to my every day commute lies ready waiting only for the play button to be pushed.  However, it's the little details like the drive to school, the security guards, the trees, the speed bumps, the super annoying/loud birds that I hated then butI would love to hear again, the voices of the kids and the mammas waking me up before my alarm, the rain on my head in the middle of the night because I forgot to close the window, sirens, people at the robots, my favorite beggar and his hat and sliding down the deserted halls of the shopping center when we're bored on a weekend night that catch me t...