Almost nine months ago, my husband was presented with the possibility of taking a three year commitment with his company to Hong Kong. When he told me, I was strangely at peace with the idea. This was definitely "out of the box", and even more so than My husband knew, since I hadn't told him yet that I was pregnant with our fifth child. We are a family that strives to live by faith, so we decided to pray about it, and with godly counsel, take one step at a time. Long story short, every step we took forward, God opened another door...and now we are here! We came in two shifts...my husband, our three orders, and a friend coming almost four weeks ahead of the rest of us. My older children needed to start school, while I stayed back to wait for a passport and imunizations for our newborn, and to tie up loose ends with the house and other details. Those three and a half weeks were incredibly difficult, but the Lord saw us through, revealing Himself in countless ways. So I have decided to blog our adventures, mostly to record our memories and remember how faithful our God is to us.
After a long separation and hard hours spent on packing up the house, my two littles and I said our goodbyes and took a shuttle to the airport. We met our very good friend who would be traveling with us, and who's wife had been over in Hong Kong, helping on that end. We brought a good deal of luggage...five big 70lb boxes, a large suitcase, and several carryons. We got everything checked in without issues, and we got to enjoy some down time before our fifteen hour flight.
The flight went smoothly...not a lot of sleep by the adults, but the kids slept well. After arriving, we were able to collect all of our bags and find my husband waiting for us...this in itself was miraculous since I had a cart and stroller to push, and our friend had two carts to push, all the while not losing our preschooler who was blazing the trail. Finally, we packed up the cars and went home to my very missed olders. For as painful as my goodbyes in the states were, my reunion with my family was even sweeter...I'm sure a lesson for the future.
This first weekend has been exhausting...dealing with the two littles who are jet lagged, my own jet lag, and night feelings. But, there is great peace being where we are supposed to be...together on a journey that only our Lord could script. Yes, no one in their right mind would move a family of seven to a foreign country, especially after given birth six weeks prior. But God does not call us to live the "easy" way, or the way that makes sense, or the way that is most comfortably. He calls us to live in obedience...which is what we are trying to do.
We went to church this morning, and the message was about discipleship. Discipleship is a long journey...a transformation that does not happen instantaneously. I believe that for our family, this adventure in Hong Kong will be a slow transformation in learning more and more how to trust and rely on Him like never before. There will be great days with successes, and there will be hard days with failures...but all will be filtered through the hands of the Father, who will use both for our good. While the. Next three years tire me just thinking about them, I am grateful for the opportunity. I'm sure I won't always be, but The Lord will use that, too. Feel free to check in on us...no doubt it will be a crazy ride!
This first weekend has been exhausting(trying to get on Hong Kong time
