SIX 40-LBS. LUGGAGE

Yup that's right!  When the plane that took us to our final destination landed in Kansas City, we claimed six 40-pounds luggage in the Baggage Claim Area.  When we claimed a small part of my in-laws' living room to temporarily store the luggage, Mike and I both said, "here's our 30 years together all condensed into 6 suitcases."  We looked at each other and chuckled.

"It's actually liberating," Mike told Pat one day when Pat and Esther dropped JJ off at mom and dad's where we temporarily stayed.  I remembered that statement when we moved to a condo unit and started unpacking.  Most of what we brought back are what's important to us: family pictures, grandma's quilt, the boys' home school yearbooks, our wedding album and my wedding gown and Mike's barong Tagalog he wore on our wedding, Mike's awards/medals he received from the US Navy, the Precious Moments figurine that the social workers from TFI gave us when JJ's adoption was finalized, our "storied" Christmas ornaments.  And yes, our traveling owl nightlight made it back too.

When I had Joshua, I started collecting the Blue Willow place settings and we brought it with us to the Philippines.  I didn't think it would make it back to the States if we take it and I was willing to leave all of them.  But Michael insisted we take them back.  I let him pack them believing he is just wasting his energy.  Well, surprisingly, all of them made it - not one broken.  Little mementos here and there in our lives' journeys made it back too.

All these are reminders of where we've been, what we've been through in the different seasons of our lives....and where we will be in the next.  When I think about all the "things" we left behind I realized that those are just excess baggage that wear us down in our life's journeys.  They are not really important but only bog us down as we "travel" this road.  So Michael and I decided as we start another milestone in our lives - we will live "small" and "less" so we can focus on what the Lord requires of us. 

After everything was unpacked, we stripped the suitcases of every tags and labels and donated them to Goodwill.  That, too, felt liberating, like turning a page of "our book" and finding the next chapter.  "For I know the plans I have for you," saith the Lord, plans to prosper you and not harm you."  What a blessing and what assurance as we begin another chapter of our lives together.

Another of my favorite Bible passage is Psalm 90: 1-2 which reads "Lord, through all the generations you have been our home!  Before the mountains were created, before you made the earth and the world, you are|God, without beginning or end."

He is, indeed, our "home" ever since and we don't want to be anywhere but in Him.

We love y'all.  Thanks for following.