Home

I have thought and thought and thought about writing on this blog. I love this blog. Somehow it became a giant task. I wish for it to return to it being a joyous chronicle of my life as a Mum. The computer, email, blogging, anything but a facebook lurk has seemed overwhelming in the past year. But the spell has been broken.

This is the first time I am taking a challenge put down by The Gypsy Mama to write for 5 minutes straight without stopping on a topic. The topic is: Home.

Here goes:

Home is funny thing these days. My friend Heidi wrote a book last year about her life growing up between 3 cultures called ”Home Keeps Moving” and this year I know what she means. Almost a year ago now, July 1, 2010, our family was evicted by our landlord of 11 years. We had 2 months to move out, and what came next was a big surprise. A massive, gut wrenching feeling, KNOWING in the spirit that we were not get another home in the city. It was palpable. it was nauseating, and it was just there. Obey that knowing, or be disobeying God, and in that case, why don’t I just put my three small kids out in the traffic? Follow God’s leading as best we knew how, or... what? Or nothing.

So we put everything in storage and we just waited... we healed and rested and worked a little and waited in other people’s homes, empty vacation homes - and after 2 months we had friends who invited us to come and work and wait down in Southern California. So we went for a planned 3 weeks and stayed 7 months. And we just came back to Canada last week. And it feels a little like home, but Cali felt like home too. And Vancouver, which was home, doesn't feel like home waiting for us any more, just friends there feel like pieces of home waiting for us.

We have moved about 30 times in the last 9 months. Our children are 6, 4 years and 22 months old. I know I am a home maker and yet I have been without a home of my own for nearly a year now... and I have learned how to make home with no house. I have learned people are more generous than they can ever imagine. I have learned that we, as a family are home for each other like nothing else can ever be. And I have learned that when I feel all torn in pieces because I feel like a bit of me is in one place and a bit of me is in another, that when I return to those places and people that each and every one can feel a bit like home, and that the possibility of a piece of new home is just around the bend too.