Selling out
We managed
to successfully sell about half of our belongings AND our house in a great
neighborhood to prepare for our medical missionary service next year. Now we rent a comfortable home with acreage on
the side of a small mountain with less "stuff" and we are still
happy. Ok, maybe Kim will be happier
once all of the boxes are empty, but it was a good exercise to show us that we
didn’t really need "more" to be satisfied.
So what
have I learned in this process?
- Sometimes less is more. No matter how long our service will be in
Africa, I hope I have right-sized my standard of living to something more
modest. I had Emmie do the math and we
have wasted $2.7 trillion in mortgage and taxes and extravagance living how we
lived. I didn’t check the numbers but
multiplication is still a work in progress for her.
- Kim is Type A+++. I knew it already. I love it.
She is so organized it is amazing.
She even labeled the kids so the movers would know where to put
them. No detail too small. I, however, still can't find my car keys or
toothbrush and I think I can hear a cat in one of the boxes in my
basement. I thought I gave them away?
- Kids are resilient. We took them away from some things they
loved. Yes, there was some
disappointment but they always adjust to a new normal. Now we are planning a tree fort, preparing
for our missionary training in Michigan for 3 weeks, playing piano, learning
French and just being…normal. OK, maybe
some of us are more normal than others.
I also bribed them with weekly ice cream boluses.
- We love the
internet and we miss it. There have
been delays getting internet service at our rental house and occasionally catching
a fleeting wifi signal is suboptimal at best.
I guess we are being prepared for absent or slow connection speed in
Chad. Please pray for Google Fiber to
sweep through Chad in the next 12 months.
On second thought, pray for paved roads or eradication of malaria. I'm sure Google doesn’t need our help.
-Our needs are being
met! No matter what hurdles we have
faced, they have been removed or reduced to manageable size. We appreciate each blessing and prayer
offered to us. Even though we have
doubters and our own self-doubt at times, we are excited about the present and
the future. Now we just have to figure
out how to condense our home into 12 suitcases over the next year...
Can someone please label the kids for me?
Love,
Mason, Kim, Maddie, & Emmie McDowell
Psalm 139:9-10
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.
