In hindsight, I think that many things got that ball rolling; things that got me out of my comfort zone at an impressionable age. Moving from the San Francisco area to small-town Oregon at age 13 may have been one. Oddly enough, being in a smaller community allowed me opportunities I wouldn't have had otherwise in a large, suburban area. I was placed outside my comfort zone and it took me a while to find my way (read: I hated it at first and was highly resentful, but much later realized the benefits and have come to the conclusion that it was a positive move for me...thanks Mom and Dad!)
Late in high school I decided, and my parents enthusiastically supported me, to go to Guadalajara, Mexico for a month during the summer with the Spanish Club at my high school. That month, while in some ways difficult, but great fun for the most part. Further placed me outside my comfort zone. I started to realize that my comfort zone could sometimes be boring! Later trips to Mexico, Guatemala and Belize ensued. Over a summer, I taught English in an orphanage and basketball to local youth in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico through Rotary International. I spent a semester in my junior year of college at la Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara learning language, culture and history. Then I went to Belize on an archaeological dig at a Classic period Maya site called Baking Pot. Two years later I went to Guatemala on a volunteer project in a small village of San Juan a couple of hours outside Guatemala City. On that trip I decided to try something new and travel alone for 4 weeks after the project was over. That was a time of meeting people (especially fellow women travelers) from all over the world, and doing a lot of things alone, where I could have time to do, absorb and reflect. It was a very different experience and an introspective one for me.
This time abroad gave me a huge appreciation for anything "other." Throughout college I made friends with exchange students. I find it wildly fun to enjoy each other's different cultures, ways of doing things, behavior, etc. I suppose having fun with it and being able to laugh with the weird habits of each culture (especially one's own!) helps in keeping an open mind about people's differences, an important characteristic for life in general. I developed empathy for the plight of those who struggle to survive. Poverty is all too prevalent in the world and it is too easy to insulate oneself from that reality in suburban USA.
In college, I tried to reconcile and combine my interests by double majoring. My advisor I'm sure thought I was odd. My primary major was Exercise and Sport Science. I was only the second person in my college of Health and Human Performance at Oregon State to sign-up for the secondary, interdisciplinary major of International Studies and a minor in Spanish. Can you see my conflict? Me trying to combine my love of sports and internationality. My brother swore I was going to teach PE to kids in Japan in Spanish. Not quite, but it was a plausible guess. My senior thesis was titled, "Ritual as Sport: A Comparison of the Ancient Maya Ballgame and Modern Sport." How's THAT for a convoluted, highly specified thesis? Oy.
Some people have taken this fascination with all things international as a way of saying that I don't like the US. Part of this projection is my fault as I am highly critical of any person or entity that is blessed with much, stemming from this verse from Luke 12:48 (NIV), "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." I feel like the US and the other wealthy countries of the world have great responsibility to show by example, help those in need, and to not be a bully. I, therefore, revere the US as one great nation seeing as how I can expect MUCH from it. The US, like any other nation, is made up of humans and therefore totally fallible (and boy, has it failed lately), but I still hold high standards for it, given that it has much and has been entrusted with much. Being in Spain has made me appreciate some of the things that we have in the US, but it is also giving me an appreciation for some good things, even some better things, that come from elsewhere. My hope is to take the good from Spain and wherever else we go or have been, and bring it home to incorporate with the good things in the US. Good + good = really good!
Back to the rough chronology of the evolution of "differentness" in my life...
One of the reasons God placed Eugene in my life is our similar appreciation and interest in all things different. Eugene spent time studying and working abroad in Germany and traveling Europe. Eugene came to meet me in Belize after the archaeological dig to travel the Yucatan Peninsula, and he supported me when I wanted to go to Guatemala by myself. He speaks German and Spanish and loves internationality as much as I do...we are a great match in that sense.
When it came time to start a family and we decided to adopt children, international was the way to go for us. Even then God had a plan for further broadening our horizons. We didn't know much about Haiti at the time that the Lord smacked us in the head with peace and clarity of where our children were. We'd been searching in South America for a program that fit and nothing took. I "stumbled" upon New Life Link's (www.newlifelink.org) website by "accident." Each step of research we took on Haiti was further affirmation that that was where our kids were. Nevermind that we didn't speak French, let alone Kreyol. Forget the whole "oh, let's adopt from a Spanish-speaking country, it will ease the transition," theory. We learned enough Kreyol to get by and our children are BRILLIANT and picked up English lickety-split!
I don't know about you, but God speaks to me in my gut. I don't hear voices, I don't really have dreams, but I feel things in my gut. My gut is never wrong (except for picking a line at the store, I always pick the slowest one and I think it's because God's STILL working on my patience - thanks God for hangin' with me!). When I met Eugene, guess what my gut said. When I saw NLL's website, guess what my gut said. When we received Jolie and Eva's referral, guess what my gut said. When I met Kerline, guess what my gut said. "Gut" is close to the German work "Got" which means "God." Coincidence? I THINK NOT.
Now we throw Spain into the mix. This is not some glamorous, exotic vacation we're on. We have hiked up our skirt, stepped over a giant puddle, and put our skirt down again. That is to say that we have not very simply transplanted our lives, but once done, it is simply that. We are doing all things "normal." Raising kids, cooking meals, doing laundry, spending family time together, arguing at times, dealing with regular family and household issues that come up, it is normal stuff in a different setting. We do normal family things with our out-of-the-ordinary family. "Different" has become normal. In fact, "normal" for us, is different now.
Different. Why NOT adopt transracially and internationally? Why NOT move to Spain? Why NOT do these other things? Rather, to do them is helping us to be more observant, empathetic, tolerant people...I think, I hope, I know we have a long way to go. Such a long way to go...so we keep on keepin' on.
What a beautiful world God made!
No comments:
Post a Comment