The In Between
The baby’s due date is three short days away. My parents arrive today to spend two weeks with us, and we are in this weird place of waiting. And in the waiting, we’ve entered a new year, which often involves a lot of pondering.
The big questions and little resolves. What do we want 2024 to look like?
As toddler parents, our new years eve celebration looked much different. We put the girls down early and enjoyed a night in with popcorn and hot chocolate. We tried to chat about the year ahead, but frankly were very tired and instead made a few observations, ultimately concluding that every year since our wedding has been unpredictable. Sure, there were some certainties we could hold onto, but most of the big life plans, travels, and changes caught us by surprise.
2016 – We met on a hike in Kurdistan, North Iraq - dated while navigating lots of changes in the region and movement of displaced people as terrorist presence grew and the war on ISIS took place.
2017 – We got married and moved to North Iraq. A story in itself, politics were shifting and I found myself deported to Germany when trying to re-enter Turkey for a border crossing. We began to open up for change in place.
2018 – We moved to Jordan. Arabic learning and job changes. Jordan? For how long? What will we do?
2019 – Michael accepted a roving global job – which meant lots of random travels popping up – we never really knew what the next month would bring – and I lived by short term contracts as a consultant. How long will this last?
2020 – a new job for me, COVID (that caught us all by surprise!), a baby
2021 – Pregnant once more, quit my job (didn’t plan on that one, I loved my job) and so we started to talk about a move – but where to?
2022 – moved to Costa Rica. Never would have guessed that one. Emma is born with clubfoot. Many visitors and trips to the States for treatment in between.
2023 – Moved to a new town within Costa Rica, got deeply involved in the church and started making roots –no more questions of how long we’ll be here, because we really don’t know. Baby girl due in just four days….
2024 – who knows? No clue. Plans? Yes. Ideas? Sure. Desires? Of course.
While talking last night we realized that we try and guess it out and think we know how it will be, and it always shocks us, the constant change. So I feel as if I’m echoing what I’ve written before, but the only consistent thing I have, are small daily routines that may lead to bigger things.
As our night ended, we decidedly set our sight on building a strong foundation for the years ahead. The only certainty we have going into this year, is that we’ll likely stay put, with no plans of moving in 2024. For me, that’s all I need at this point.
I’m in search of ways to get our girls immersed in Spanish – and I’m looking forward to a consistent writing schedule. I’ve just ordered a microphone to start a podcast this Spring and we also signed up for a marathon next fall. We have learned that if we don’t put dates on a calendar, the dates will be made for us.
For the first time in a while we are committing to plans. Michael has work travel commitments laid out for the months ahead, and we have a few visitors in store which we are excited about. Other than that, we have flexibility to pretend like we are in control and room to roam.
We get excited when we see a few weeks in a row of time at home – and equally excited about an upcoming trip or visitor. We are at home in the unknown and in-betweens – and I’ve come to cherish it as a season in life that has stretched us further than we’d ever thought possible.