Anticipation

I feel like we are in such a crazy time right now.  Right now we are at the Hands at Work annual Celebrations in Zambia.  This is where we bring people together from many different nations to discuss and celebrate what is being done to help some of the most vulnerable children in the world.  What an exciting time to be a part of what’s happening.

Not only that but, we are excited and anticipating this baby that is on the way.  Seeing that Ultrasound the other week was indescribable for me.  A moment I will always remember. 

As we look to head back to Victoria for a period, as always, I feel torn.  Torn between the excitement of heading back to Canada and all that entails and leaving behind everything in Africa.  This seems inevitable though with friends and family on both sides.  I feel so passionate about this work, and this way of life, but at times it is tiring.  If you have read previous blogs you may have heard the story of Phumla who is very close to us.  Leaving Phumla behind breaks my heart, along with many others. She told us that we have become parents to her and she cried when we told her we were going home for a while.

As we head back to Victoria, we don’t know where we will live and how we will make it work, but we trust that things will come together.  The idea of a new addition to the family seems so strange, beautiful and exciting.  Honestly I was starting to have doubts, somewhere in the back of my mind, that this would happen for us.  I can’t wait to share this experience with my family.  And knowing that we are coming back to Africa gives me peace.  I know there are many people on this side who will also be excited to meet our baby.  We don’t know what it will look like coming back here after the baby.  How could we though, we have never been through this before.  Whatever it looks like I pray for love and support from our families because it’s never easy to leave people behind. 

Life in Africa is incredible and I hope to share it with more friends and family from Canada someday.  It’s hard to go home and fit into life again.  At the same time I don’t want to slip back into the way things were.  I love the growth in my life and the way things are and I hope I will continue to grow personally and in my marriage. 

As this next season approaches I feel joy, something much deeper than happiness.  We have received such a blessing and it makes me want to be a better person, a better husband and a good father.  I pray that I will also continue to feel the peace that is in me now.

~T