gratitude: many homes

I have lived in six states.  And that is just the American part of my life.  If you were to place my homes on a map and plot them from birth to now, the globe would be a colorful connect-the-dots that spanned back and forth across the Atlantic several times.  There have been periods when I've wished for a more conventional upbringing, that I had a hometown and an easy way to answer "where are you from," a question I always feel I'm lying about when I answer.  But now, I see my many homes as a gift, something I'm so thankful for.

It all started here:

I'm the blonde one, sitting on a former sheikh's lap.  I suppose it would be the equivalent of sitting your daughter on President Bush's lap and snapping a picture, except this country had gained it's independence only 13 years earlier.  My parents moved to Al Ain, in the United Arab Emirates, shortly after they were married.  Their parents thought they were crazy to move to the desert, but supported them as career missionaries and their desire to trust God to provide their finances.  My dad assisted at Oasis Hospital as they built their new facilities, where Ryan was later born. I was born in the "old-old" hospital, and Elyse was born in a newer addition than us both, ten years later.  Now the whole thing is quite the modern operation.

My parents served there for over five years before moving our family of four to Dallas, Texas, where they would attend seminary.  As soon as they were done, we moved back to the UAE, this time to the capital city of Abu Dhabi, where my dad was able to transfer with the engineering firm he worked with in Dallas.  I was eight and my brother was five.  A few years later, plus an extra child, my sister having been born, a job change led us to Dubai.  We lived there for six years, until I graduated high school.

So, if a conversation gets that far, I often say I grew up in Dubai.  It is the longest I've ever lived anywhere, and sixth-twelfth grade are pretty important years.  I loved living in Dubai, the pristine beaches, the spicy smells of the markets, and going to school and church with people from fifty different countries.  We were like the UN, all the time.  I enjoyed being one of a few Americans out of my closest friends.  In the picture below, my friends are from Canada, Philippines, England, Scotland, South Africa, and Pakistan.  

I loved camping in the desert, having prom in the world's only seven start hotel :), and enjoyed coming back to the US to stay with my grandparents in Cincinnati almost every summer.  Living in Dubai was a lifestyle of frequent traveling, as our family would stop places on the way back to the US and our school often took trips to other countries.  It was during a school trip to Tanzania in tenth grade that I was first introduced to Africa, and first thought I'd like to live there someday.  I am so thankful we were able to stay until I graduated, when my family moved to Oklahoma and I went off to Indiana to attend Taylor University.  

Of course I missed Dubai, but I loved Taylor, despite its distance from Oklahoma.  We racked up a lot of Southwest miles in those days.  I also couldn't shake the desire to "get out," and was able to spend a semester in Tanzania and part of my student teaching experience in Taiwan.  And then I developed the plan to teach in the U.S. for a couple years to get some experience, and then teach overseas.  This plan actually worked, as I taught in Charlotte, North Carolina for two years before heading to Kenya.  And that's where I met Matt, and we got married and moved to Long Island while he completes his residency.

Phew.  That's it in a nutshell.  

All of that to say, it is a different sort of life.  I feel connected to each place, regardless of how short the stay.  One year is plenty of time for a place to root in your heart.  At times I am envious of Matt's hometown pride and having the same best friend since kindergarten, but that's not my story.   My story is a bit more complicated, and I love it all the same.