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This week I got the soul filling beautiful experience of a day with Dan and Wendy in my city. Dan and Wendy were my life group leaders at Westport over a decade ago, and they are some of my biggest champions as I live and serve Jesus outside of my passport country. They were some of the first people to jump on my team, and they’ve been my biggest advocates to love on teenagers since I was their older daughter’s small group leader when she was a young teen. They know me and they love me, and now they’ve seen my newest home and will continue to pray for me as they read updates and know couches my life group will sit on and the streets my youth group will walk through.

In the best way possible, my friend Hannah often comments, “I forget that you’re not from here,” when something reminds her that I’m an American. I never forget being foreign and the privilege it is to live cross culturally. Sometimes, to be honest, I feel the alienness a bit stronger and need to grieve the fact I’ll never fit one hundred percent in like a native. Fortunately, I’ve got a few foreign friends who can relate and I usually have a hang out with one of them and settle back into my rhythms. There’s something wholly different for my soul when I get several uninterrupted hours with a couple who know my past and have stayed connected to me long distance now seeing my home and hearing my heart in person.

It felt so, so good.

Later that night, Hannah was hanging out at my house debriefing some youth group stuff and praying with me and made the comment about me being a part of community here and so not being an outsider alien at all. My heart warmed in a different way when she told me about her young son referring to me as “one of ours.” This kid will grow up with me around, and I love how I anticipate a moment in his life where there’s more with me present in it than not. That’s super rare for my loved ones. My nephews have never lived in the same time zone as me ever in their short lives.

There are trade offs in this expat life, and I don’t take them lightly. It’s worth it only because this is what God has asked of me, and he has shown me so many blessings because of my obedience. I’m flying to America in three weeks for a super short visit made possible by the generosity of someone who had a couple years in person with me. I’ll be a tourist for a week in Portland as I hang out with Dan and Wendy again and see a handful of people before I head home to the place I didn’t grow up.

I know that this is where God wants me – living in the in between with roots and wings as I participate in and share about the work God is doing to build his kingdom globally. I’m so grateful for the chance to share it with Dan and Wendy and with Hannah.