I hadn’t been back in the US for almost two full years prior to my vacation this past July, so what a gift it was to spend amazing quality time with friends and family during my 4-week vacation! I finally got to meet my two nephews that were born during my time at the Finca, and I had SO, SO much time to play cards with my mom and siblings, as well as teaching them Ticket to Ride (one of my favorite new board games that I learned at the Finca)!
One of my family’s favorite hobbies is playing cards around the kitchen table after dinner with your choice of alcoholic beverage, which typically ranges from Crown & Diet to Moscow Mule to locally brewed craft beer. Nobody in my family lacks competitiveness during these card games, but it is typically a laid-back environment with lots of jokes and great conversations. Also, you obviously sleep a lot better at night after you beat your mom and siblings in cards!
My love language, both giving and receiving, is undoubtedly quality time, which is a touch challenging at the Finca where my cell phone usage is limited, life is crazy busy, and I try to be as present as possible to our larger Finca community. I am also self-admittedly REALLY bad at checking my phone throughout the day/week, which makes it that much harder to stay in touch with friends and family while at the Finca. However, I was with my family in Kansas City for 3 weeks during my vacation, and we were able to love one another SO, SO well through the gift of quality time!
I also got to catch up with some great high school and college friends during my time in the US, and I am so grateful that my relationships with them picked up right where they left off, which, in my opinion, is the sign of great relationships. & of course, I got to spend two AMAZING weeks with my girlfriend, Kristen, in both Kansas City and Philly. My 4-week long vacation had four distinctly different weeks due to a variety of factors, ranging from vacations to surgeries to flights to and from Philly.
As I wrote about in my previous blog, my first week back on vacation in the US was a family vacation at Tablerock Lake! Life is crazy busy for everyone in this world, so it was such a gift to spend incredible quality time with almost all of my immediate family, especially my two young nephews that I finally got the chance to meet and hold! Looking back now, it was a true gift that in my first week back in the US in two years, nobody had work, daycare, workout regimes to follow, or any other worries other than when to go out on the boat, when to eat meals, and when Wesley and Theo needed to go down for a midday nap. We could simply be in one another’s presence for an entire week and enjoy the resulting conversations, jokes, reading time together, and seemingly endless card games!
My second week of vacation was supposed to be filled with spending time with high school friends and family friends/neighbors before Kristen arrived in Kansas City on July 22nd. However, as I described in the previous blog, my skin cancer surgeries were a touch more complicated than we originally imagined, and I couldn’t really leave my house much over the course of my second week of vacation. Nonetheless, this time of rest and reflection was incredibly fruitful in processing my first two years at the Finca and discerning for a third year.
My third week of vacation was supposed to be incredible time with just Kristen and I, especially since we had not gotten the opportunity to spend quality time with one another in-person in essentially 7 or 8 months. With my surgeries and inability to leave the house over the course of my second week of vacation, all of my plans with friends, family friends, mentors, and visiting my mom’s family near Omaha got pushed back to when Kristen arrived and I could finally leave the house again. Nonetheless, it was a great opportunity for her to meet my best friends in the entire world, to meet some of my mom’s family at the farm, and to spend quality time with my parents and siblings!
My fourth and final week of vacation was spent in Philly with Kristen! We had a lot more downtime in Philly, especially during the day when her friends and family were working, to spend quality time with just us two and to continue to grow and deepen our relationship. I also got an opportunity to meet so many of her best friends from high school and college, as well as her parents and one of her brothers. Furthermore, Luke and Megan, who were in our missionary community last year at the Finca and also live on the east coast, visited Philly during my last two days in the US! & WHAT A BLAST THAT WAS!! We went to a Royals-Phillies baseball game, went to a few different bars in downtown Philly, and laughed and joked SO, SO much about our collective experiences at the Finca!
All in all, I enjoyed my 4 weeks in the US so much, and I got to spend amazing quality time with so many of the people that I love with all my heart! Kenna and I returned to the Finca on August 7th, & THE THREE BEST FRIENDS ARE BACK TOGETHER IN CASA SANTA TERESITA!! Natalie, Kenna, and I hadn’t been at the Finca together at the same time since mid-May when Kenna abruptly had to leave due to an injury, and it has been SO DANG AMAZING to reunite our community and to spend quality time talking and joking during meals. I will be forever grateful to have such an amazing missionary community to experience the Finca with!
Please pray for our incoming Finca missionaries, who should arrive at the Finca by mid-October. Please pray for their peace and joy as they leave for language school in the coming weeks.
Please let me know how I can pray for you!
God Bless!