Our Life Overseas ♥
Day 8 – When Happy Hearts Hurt, FIND a Reason to Celebrate!
“Hey, Shauna! Did you remember that the Queen of Games is leading a game tonight at our year-end celebration? Are you ready?”
I cringed. That’s the last thing I wanted to do. There are sometimes in life when, despite my best intentions, those old familiar feelings of sadness and depression sneak up and bite me in the butt.
This week has been one of those times. Some of our closest friends moved back to their home nation of Sri Lanka, and our hearts are sore. Don’t get me wrong. We are honestly and legitimately thrilled for them! They are ready and capable, and it’s THEIR time to fly.
But my heart is struggling to get on board. The Rajapakses have become our ‘adopted family’ over the last decade, and we’ve lived life together—babies, birthdays, and teenagers… Christmas parties, curry nights, and worship times together… ten years of laughter, tears, and countless pots of coffee.
How can one person be so torn in their emotions?
Am I losing my mind? Happy one minute, sad the next.
But isn’t that just the irony of loving people? Just like the emotional rollercoaster that mothers and fathers experience when they see their children blossom into adulthood and move away from home. Happy because they are becoming who God has made them to be, and sad because they are no longer running around our house.
My happy heart hurts.
Day 7 – No More Excuses! No One Can MAKE you mad!
Doesn’t it just make you MAD when grown adults behave badly and make excuses for it, whether that be in the school parking lot, on social media, or driving in traffic circles?
‘Seriously!? Stay in your blinkin’ lane, lady!’
You’d think that a traffic circle was a new phenomenon around here. It’s like the whole country becomes confused when the roadway wraps itself around a pretty garden.
‘I don’t know where to go.’
It doesn’t help that city developers designed many of them with one lane in and two lanes out. So, of course, it makes perfect sense for the Average Jo to go ALL the way around in the outside lane and ignore everyone in the inside lane who should have the right-of-way. What was he thinking?
‘But I didn’t know…’
‘But I changed my mind…’
‘But I don’t care…’
On our way to and from school, there are a whopping six traffic circles, and it is a rare day when I don’t get cut off by at least one person who is oblivious to their surroundings. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve narrowly missed being creamed by some guy in a taxi.
So, what does one do when you can’t control other people’s driving habits?
Day 5: Are Ya Winning? (When You Feel Like a Loser)
Do you ever have days when you feel completely overcome by the world around you? I do. Maybe not as much as I used to, but every now and again it still happens.
I remember a season when our pastor had a catch-phrase that he would ask everyone when he met them. He’d say, “Are ya winning?”
I hated that phrase. I mean, I didn’t hate the actual words, and I certainly didn’t hate him, but I dreaded having to answer those three words…
“Are ya winning?”
Am I winning? Oh heck, I don’t think so. But if I’m not winning, that must mean that I’m losing. It must mean that I’m a lose-er.
“Are ya winning?”
I remember avoiding Pastor Louis ‘like the plague’ during that season. If I saw him on one side of the church, I’d go to the other. If I saw him standing in the front parking lot, I’d drive around to the back lot. I couldn’t bear the thought of having to answer that one stupid question.
“Are ya winning?”
