As I write, we have seven weeks left of our year in Scotland. Roughly 1.5 months to wrap up our life in Perth, Scotland and organize re-entry into our life in Salem, Oregon, USA. The preparations to go to Scotland one year ago were crazy busy, confusing, scary, and filled with doubt. The preparations to go back will soon keep us crazy busy but right now we are feeling deeply bittersweet emotions.
The sweet is easy.
We are SO excited to be with our family, our friends, in our house, in our town. Driving on the right (and yes, still to us, correct) side of the street - bliss! Food that is familiar to us and appliances that work with our experience and training. Central heating. Stores where we can find exactly what we need or where we at least know the proper words to use to ask for the things we can't find. Almond lattes made with almond milk and almond syrup; beans and rice made with Mexican spices and rice in the rice cooker; British shows on PBS (we can't afford to pay for the deluxe cable to get those shows here - go figure); seeing our neighbors again when we walk through our hood and having OUR DOG again!!! The list really does go on and on...
The bitter is hard.
Tom's mother, Grace, passed away on June 24th. She had suffered greatly from Alzheimer's but her health declined very quickly in her last few months of life and we were caught off guard by the sad phone call from Tom's brother. When we return home, then, one sweetly anticipated reunion will not take place and that will be hard.
Nor did we foresee building relationships and attachments in Scotland that would cause such a huge sense of loss as we prepare to leave. Many people here have become our community and our friends: Tayside Young Lives staff/volunteers/mums/tots; Cairn Brae (the Young Life camp) staff; the pastors and members of Trinity Church of the Nazarene; Young Life International staff (UK and Ireland); the US Young Life staff who have dealt heroically with our weird financial/visa requirements; and the good people of Perth who have patiently dealt with us as neighbors, customers, clients and patients. In the course of 10 months, two men we were blessed to come to know here have died of cancer: Hugh and Roger, we already are missing you. We have rejoiced in the birth of new babies and have many little friends we will miss seeing grow. The brave, tough and tender Young Lives mums and their wee ones have our hearts forever. Our church family is so dear to us that I can't find words to express our love for them. Campbell the Kilted Barber - I mean, seriously - you could not invent a lovelier man.
And Scotland the country - every shire and kingdom (Fife! Fife! Fife!) has a charm and wild beauty and history worth spending time exploring. Perthshire will always be our home away from home. A wondrous country!
It's hard to quantify what we have accomplished in our gap year in Scotland. We deeply hope that we have made an impact here; being here has certainly made an impact on us. We are trusting and leaning on God to use our time here for His purposes.
We have been blessed beyond our wildest dreams this year. "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap." Luke 6:38
