And the New Name......

I must admit, it took a little while for us to figure out what kind of  new name the blog could have.  Thanks to those of you who gave name suggestions.  And no, we aren't changing the URL address, so you'll still find us here.

We had some good starts from your ideas.  Then Carl was being goofy and suggesting things that were outlandish, ridiculous, cheezy, and WAY too deep and out there (I didn't even get some of them!).  Finally we came up with a name that reflects where we are right now in our life journey, but I think also is descriptive of our life in the last 4 years.

I want to share a little story of a hard conversation that we had with one of our children a few weeks ago.  We were on our way back from a little road trip to visit Carl's brother and his family a couple of hours away.  As were almost home, in the dark with all the street lights aglow, Carl said that he thought one of the kids was crying.  We turned down the radio and asked if everyone was alright.  A small voice from the back, through his tears spoke up, "This isn't home, I want to go home.  This isn't our home".  Oh wow.  That hit me hard and my eyes filled up with tears.  How do I respond to that?  How do I assure him that this is our home now?  This place has slowly begun to feel more familiar, but I have to admit, it doesn't feel like home yet. At least I don't get lost in town anymore....

I don't know where home is sometimes.  When we go to the city, it's the most familiar place I can recall from my adult life.  But we don't live there, so it's not my home.  And there have been moments where I thought it would be much easier to get on an airplane and go back to Bolivia.  But that's not my home either. When I was reading the book, Third Culture Kid, it talked about how TCK's always try and return "home" only to find that it isn't.  They've changed, the place has changed, other people have moved on.  This constant desire to keep going, keep searching for a place to belong can lead to a nomadic life with no roots anywhere.  I can't imagine the energy expended, the disappointment, the hurt.  So I'm trying to embrace into my heart this idea that,

Home isn't home when it feels cozy like home, but home needs to where you are called.

Bloom where you are planted.  Be where you are called.  Live where He has you.

It may be only one place in your lifetime, or it may be a different place every 18 months for your entire life.  So we decided to call our blog,

Home is Here

With this idea in mind that wherever God has us, we are going to make our home.  When you stop by, you'll find stories about our life and how we are journeying along.  And if God calls us to be somewhere else in the future, we'll try and live in that place fully, like we did in all the other places we have been led to.

In some ways, it was less about choosing a new blog name and more about hearing God's re-assuring voice.  That through my tears and my ache that I am not home, He says to me that wherever you are Kathy, I am, and that makes it home.