Things I'm looking forward to!

After posting my last blog post, I feel like I need to follow up fairly promptly with a "Things I'm looking forward to!" post. Cause there really is a lot that I'm looking forward to! So here it is, in no particular order:

- learning a new culture. I am really excited to be immersed in a totally different culture for an extended length of time. I'm excited to start to understand the things that will initially just baffle me. I'm excited to gain new insights into the ways that things can be done. I'm excited to experience a culture that has vastly different core values than Canada or the states!
- Learning a new language. Because I spent the first five years of my life in a South American, Spanish speaking country, I spoke Spanish as fluently as I spoke English for those first few years of my life. It disappeared soon after moving to Canada and I've always considered it a loss. The thought of being able to regain even a small part of that loss has me very excited. I'm excited to see how quickly it comes back (or doesn't). I'm excited to start to be able to communicate again in a language that I used to use with no thought.
- Gaining new ministry insights. While we don't know what life beyond summer 2018 will look like at this point, I think it's safe to say that our call to ministry is still there. As a pastor couple in North America for a total of nine years in our married twelve, we have learned a lot but it feels like there is still so much more to learn. The thought of walking alongside a completely different type of ministry for a season and learning what goes into it, being stretched in a new way, is appealing. I see this new experience of ministry being an asset no matter where we end up.
- Seeing the kids grow in new ways. I'm not sure what to expect with this one but I'm sure it'll be interesting! To see the kids in such a different environment having experiences they would never have here in Canada...there has got to be both growth and changes that I would never suspect but that are amazing to watch. Growth in language and bravery and flexibility and who knows what else.
- Growth in my relationship with God. How can you not get to know your maker better when distractions of comfort and home are removed and you have little choice but to run to Him every time you feel stretched thin?? This is also one that makes me nervous because growth is often accompanied by growing pains. BUT...it's always worth it. Every growing pain that got me to my 4'10" was worth it. In fact, I would have gladly taken more growing pains if I could have just passed 5'...
- Tourism and travelling and no winter for a year. Of course I'm looking forward to these things too. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't at all excited about seeing new things and experiencing new things and being in MEXICO for a winter. I mean, c'mon.
- Getting to hang out with some pretty amazing people. I happen to know a handful of Canadians who are working in ministry in Mexico in the Guadalajara area. And while I don't know them well, or haven't even really known them in the past 12 or so years (and some much longer than that!), I am not sad that I'll get to hang out with them for a few months and get to know them all over again and develop friendships with them and glean from their wisdom! This sounds like a good thing to me, a very good thing indeed!

So yes, while there are things that I'm incredibly nervous/sad about in this whole journey (see previous post), there are also many things that I look forward to! There is a mix of emotions and I sometimes fluctuate greatly in just a matter of hours. But ok. If I'm going to be completely honest, there are also many days when I just don't think much about it cause there's something kinda big happening within the week that overshadows what's coming in 6 months. Can anyone say...new baby?! Wahoo! What a crazy, chaotic, beautiful time of life.