Selling out (7.2.13)

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.