30 July 2011

The end of a chapter

We have ended our time in Barbados. After being back in the States for nearly a month, it is already feeling a bit surreal.

Our last few weeks were very full. The college was so gracious and kind to Luke and our family as we departed. They took us out to lunch, gave us gifts, and praised Luke for his character and good work he'd done at the college. Our precious church blessed us, prayed for us, and gifted us with mementos to cherish. We've had the opportunity to do a lot of leaving in the last 15 years - leaving Colorado,Texas (me), California, St. Andrews, and Barbados. Although I hope we'll soon be in a situation where leaving isn't something we're planning for, I feel that we've been very blessed by our leavings. I wish more people could have the experience of being blessed, surrounded, encouraged, and prayed for like we have. It is something that is very natural to do when you're saying goodbye indefinitely to dear ones. But don't we all need that same kind of love poured out on us, even for our daily tasks of non-leaving?

The last few weeks were also full of work. Packing, sorting, shipping, garage-sale-ing, cleaning... ugh. It is definitely the un-fun part of moving and something we've done too much of in the last few years. Again, we are hopeful and prayerful that we'll have a respite from moving sometime in the next few years. We're ready for roots. We're ready to be established within a place and community for longer that a few months or years.

Yet, we are grateful to God for the portion He's given us. We've been able to live in some amazing, interesting and sometimes very challenging settings. We've been blessed with good health and He has provided everything we've needed. I can easily say that our 18 months in Barbados and the 6 months leading up to it were just. plain. hard. I know we'll remember the sweetness of playing at the beach with our kiddos, eating fish meals in Oistins, snorkeling in the Caribbean, and flying kites on campus. But we'll also remember the daily discomfort of our house, climate, culture, and island life that we (me, especially) never found appealing or very satisfying. It is a relief to be done with this chapter, though we trust that God has brought or will continue to bring good out of our time in Barbados.

So, as we return to all of the positives and negatives of life in the good old USA, I am still planning to start a private blog. Once we get settled in the next month or so, I'll be up and running again. If you haven't yet, please email me at hollytallon@gmail.com if you'd like to access the blog. Thank you for being part of our journey.

1 comment:

The Egan Family said...

Holly, I'm glad you are able to hold on to some great memories...and also glad you are free of the hardest things you've had to face these past 18 months! Life is a roller coaster, isn't it?