Lansers Get Lost!

Well, it's taken me over a month to publish this final post. And even then, I expect that this one will be the most disorganized of all. It's hard to take all that happened in a year in our lives and condense it to a few paragraphs. We've gotten questions about our travels and questions about our return and questions about what we've learned. I'll do my best to provide some answers for each. And I really want to emphasize that these thoughts are my own--I'm sure you'd get very different answers if you asked Mike or any of the girls.

First up, some final pictures of our adventure:

We were sworn to secrecy about Trina's drastic hair change while in Mexico, but for those who haven't seen her yet...

..this is her new look!

We splurged on one more big hair day before returning home. Before!

And after! (Celia decided to keep it growing)

On the 19th of December, we began our relatively short flight home from Monterrey, Mexico to good ol' GR.

One more beautiful sunrise from the sky

And then we were home--and shocked and so excited to be greeted by most of our family members!

Walking into our home after being away for a year was just weird. We all commented that it felt cozier than we remembered :). We were greeted by a clean and ready-to-go house (thanks, Kari!) and a big balloon bouquet (thanks, Kelli!).

And just that quickly, a year passes and our very tangible adventures now become memories. So this post will be much more fun for me to write than for you to read as I travel down memory lane!

Are you glad to be home? (or my favorite: "You must be glad to be home!")
My pat response is "yes" and then I often change it to "well, sort of" but usually my brain is saying "um, no". Certainly we missed people but I credit modern technology for making this piece so much easier. And it's nice to have conveniences back. But there was so much more to see!!! :)

What was your favorite place?
That's such a tough one because we enjoyed each place in different ways and there were so many different types of places (beaches, mountains, cities...). New Zealand rose to the top for me because it had long been on my bucket list and did not disappoint with its beauty. The girls would lean toward Switzerland for its beauty but also because it was time with family. We all loved the city of Sydney. And Mike would vote for parts of Asia (Thailand, Philippines)

Did you ever get sick?
We are so thankful for the gift of great health. Most of us had a day or two of colds or upset stomachs, but nothing that affected our travel and we were relieved to make it through the year without food poisoning or bedbugs or infections or broken bones or...

I may get in trouble for posting this one! Mike trying to overcome a nasty headache. Eventually he fell asleep with the cup of hot coffee balanced on his stomach. The girls and I may have laughed a little at his misery.

How were you able to do this for a year?

This answer deserves to be in bold print and highlighted. Mike worked for three months and the other nine months were three accumulated development leaves from Innotec. BUT, this would have never been possible without the full support of the Innotec team and the willingness of so many people to keep things rolling while Mike was away. I was pleasantly surprised by how much Mike did remove himself from the day to day. I know he's thankful to those who stepped in, and know that I am too--but now you can have him back for a while :)

How has the adjustment been?
TOO easy, honestly. We settled back into our house, jumped into the holiday celebrations, and then headed off to our work and school responsibilites. So my greatest fear is that this time will be forgotten and we'll go on living life no differently. My prayer is that in some way (which remains a mystery to me, but maybe it will be subtle) we use this experience to make us more effective for God on this earth.

What was your best part of the trip?
I most enjoyed watching the girls become genuine friends with each other. Certainly they still had their times of fighting and annoying and crying and punching, but they also had fun being together. There were so many sweet times of just watching them and wanting to always remember the moments: walking hand in hand with Trina, settling into a hotel room on their own, all singing along to the music, being silly together, ~~ganging up on mom and dad~~

What didn’t make the blog? (ooh, this wins the prize for best question, Anna!)
Well, we all have that junk we're not going to advertise to the world and believe me, our family has more than our share.

Other than that, there were those "close call" moments that inevitably happen. I certainly wasn't going to share them while we were afar and I debated whether to even share them now that we're safe at home. But I think it's important to share them because these are times we were most reminded of God's grace to us.

At one point in Goa, India, the girls were swimming in the ocean and the waves were pretty high and strong. I realized Celia and Trina were out too far and called to them from shore. I, in my naivety, thought they were choosing to stay out that far and didn't realize that they were struggling and not able to move in. Faith and Ella were coaching them and eventually they made it to shore exhausted and in tears. I lay awake in bed that night flip-flopping between "thank you, God" and playing through all the what-ifs.

In Beirut, the girls were crossing a busy road. Trina was running across just as a driver decided she didn't want to wait in traffic and moved over to the parking lane and accelerated. Trina attempted to stop and slid right into the side of her car. Scary for sure, but no injuries.

You can't imagine how many times I sang this very old Amy Grant song:

God only knows the times my life was threatened just today
A reckless car ran out of gas before it ran my way
Near misses all around me, accidents unknown
Though I never see with human eyes the hands that lead me home
God, I know they're all around me all day and through the night.
Angels watching over me every move I make
Angels watching over me
Angels watching over me every step I take
Angels watching over me.

What did you learn? (oh wow, new things pop up every day, but here are a few)

- The truth of "the days are long but the years are short" (although many of the days were pretty short too)

- When planning a trip like this, consider your kids' ages but also consider your own age. Wow, I'm getting too old for some of this :).

I sure took a lot of grief for always being behind. I willingly chose to be last in line so I could keep on eye on my chicks, but then I would often fall further behind. We should have kept count of how many times I got stuck on one side of the road while the others crossed. Here, Faith thought it was hilarious to watch me attempting to catch up on the Great Wall.

Nope, not feelin' it.

- Probably even a bigger deal is that I wasn't too old to do things but too fearful. This trip showed me in a number of ways how I so often let fear direct my steps instead of God. So that was one big learning piece for me--to let go of the fear and trust that God has it. (although you still won't see me bungee jumping anytime soon!)

- How God miraculously protected us from lost things:

Faith left her phone on an overnight bus to Bangkok. Over an hour later as we were just about to our hostel, she realized it. The taxi driver drove her and Mike back to the (huge) bus station. The taxi driver drove through a barrier and even received a ticket to try to get them near the buses. In a sea of over 100 buses, they were directed to ours. Just stepping out of the bus was an employee who knew where the phone was and gave it back to her. Unbelievable that in a huge city with so much thievery, the phone would still be there two hours later and the bus was still parked at the station.
Trina left her phone and wallet in a rented van that our hotel in the Philippines hired for us as we began a week's stay on another island. Mike attempted to call the hotel but no one seemed to know how to contact the van. When we returned a week later, we stopped by the hotel. The tuk-tuk driver remembered us and knew which van we had used and led us over there. As we arrived our driver was just preparing to leave the garage, recognized Trina, and told us to wait. He grabbed her purse from the door pocket of his vehicle where he had been holding on to it. He had just returned from delivering passengers and was preparing to head back out, so the timing was absolutely perfect to get her purse back.
Oh, and then you're welcome to ask me just how our family of six was able to enter South Africa with only 4 yellow fever cards. I got in the way a little on that one, but God showed His power there too

- I was blown away by the variety of creatures, but especially sea creatures, God has created!

- Issues stay issues. If you think escaping like this for a year will solve all your problems, think again! If anything, flaws in the family dynamics are just exacerbated when you're together 24/7!

- The world is a big, interesting, big, beautiful, big place! We saw so much and yet we saw so little. We even ended up knocking South America out of our plan because we ran out of time.

- God's created an amazing world filled with a variety of beautiful things to enjoy but also a variety of beautiful people.

- How valuable it is to show hospitality and how many different ways there are to show it!

- It's possible to feel as if you have friends all around the world.

- For our family, beaches are our happy places--all fighting and crabbiness ended when we parked ourselves on a beach.

- I'm thankful for free public toilets and free tap water!

- I loved how available public transportation and bikes were in so many parts of the world.

- Holland, MI is a great place to live for so many reasons!

- I learn through and focus on words and stories. Mike learns through and focuses on numbers and materials

- I want the confidence of the GPS woman. No language or combination of letters slowed her down! No matter where we were, she confidently, insistently, and always pleasantly butchered names.

- What did we do before phones and google? Maps, reservations, factoids, "where are you" texts... (and a huge plug for t-mobile. Their global plan was amazingly dependable!)

-Table tennis is kind of a big deal around the world.

- And finally, in case you didn't catch it the other six times I said it!, Jesus is the hope of the world. I'm convinced of this more than ever as we witnessed others (and sometimes ourselves too) attempt unsuccessfully to put hope in idols or money or other broken people or political candidates or their own abilities.

How did the girls do?
There was some weeping and gnashing of teeth when the idea was proposed. And I get it--a year is a long time to be away. But once we hit the road, they accepted it without complaining and enjoyed their year. In the end, they were happy to return home but also thankful to have had the experience. I had fun watching them become more and more independent. And being together and removing some distractions gave me time to appreciate the gifts of each of them and admire who they're becoming.

Ella is our get it done/no extra words necessary girl (well, unless those words are dripping with sarcasm). She (and the others too) was so quick on her phone, navigating and helping me find the right bus to catch. It will still be hard to have her leave the nest soon, but I'm confident when she does, she'll manage. It was also fun to have more and more adult conversations about her thoughts and opinions on things. And she was a great, caring big sister to Trina.

Faith just brings the party! She introduced us to lots of silly apps, silly voices, silly expressions and kept us laughing. She also has huge leadership skills and a need to get things done which were *usually* positive character traits :) Oh, and of course her photography skills which you all benefited from.

Celia just really seemed to grow up this year (literally--she grew 4 inches!). In the past, I considered Ella and Faith the older girl group, but that group of two has now become a group of three. She would often walk ahead of us as a way of testing herself to know she could navigate without our help. And this girl has one quick wit!

The fish were just starting to attack her toes!

Trina in my experience was the perfect age to take an adventure like this. She was eager to play whenever there was an opportunity, but also mature enough to deal well with unfamiliarity, be flexible, and hang with the big girls.