Part 3: Where we are today, right now…

The clock ticks 6:01am and I find myself, for the first time in a long time, awake, coffee in hand, sitting downstairs with my computer on my lap and a desire to write in my heart. It’s been awhile, and this post in particular has been put off for sometime. Part 1 and 2 focused on looking back. It’s always easier isn’t it? To look backwards and reflect. I find it’s always easier for me than to actually put into words what our hopes, prayers and desires are for the future. I love goal setting, but I don’t always love sharing them. Sharing can be scary. Sharing adds a level of vulnerability and transparency and all of a sudden it’s easy to feel accountable to the goals you spoke into the world.

But here we are… and like I said, it’s been awhile. I’m up before kids and ready to share. They say it takes about two years to readjust to life back in your home culture after living overseas and so far that is proving to be true.  We moved back to the states almost 15 months ago and I would have said we were adjusting fairly easily, but about a month ago, I went through an experience that made me realize, the two year adjustment period is probably very accurate. I have enjoyed exploring my hometown again with family and am continuing to shed some layers of the past that was probably time to go. I know God delights in our joy and loves when we truly enjoy this life and this work he has given us here on Earth.

So I thought I’d break this update down into a few categories!

Home
Well we sure do know this is not our ultimate home, and we have. always been open to the Lord moving us anywhere, and we still are. In fact, we had an opportunity to purchase a house earlier this year, and we ended up backing out of the home purchase with an unsettledness about where we would end up, and I think we were right to follow this Holy Spirit prompting. The Lord led Alan to a new job, we found a house to rent near family and we’ve slowly been establishing ourselves here. We believe for this next season anyway that we will be staying in Vegas so we are moving forward with our search for a home to purchase with a dream of an older house to fix up with plenty of land for a horse, or an RV to travel… our list of what we desire is somewhat strange!

Church
I think if you know me, you know my feelings on this subject. The church we came back to was almost 30 minutes away and we had a hard time plugging in and finding community near us. We’ve been on the hunt, but have since landed at a new church in the SW just minutes from where we live that we truly love. We hope to dive in this next year and serve our church and local community wholeheartedly. The hardest part has been not having community or people who “know” us at church, but we also know that takes time too and we have to be willing to help create the community we desire!

Friendships
I’ve known for awhile that I struggle with attachment issues, but I truly desire deep friendships. I’m not much of a small talk girl, and the reality is that small talk is usually what leads to the deeper discussions. I’m almost opposite to this. I’m a social introvert, as I like to say. Essentially, I love being around people, but I recharge alone and need the quiet alone time to process.

I talk about the Dominican a lot. Just as any normal person would talk about their life, but mine happens to have happened overseas in a focused missions context and not a lot of people can relate to be honest. I’ve been blessed with people in my life who listen, but I find not many actually ask questions. I do have some things I am excited for in 2019 that I think will bring me into deeper friendships with women and I am very much looking forward to that.

Missions & Serving
I’m still struggling to figure out how my 10 years of experience in missions and working overseas fits into the future, but I am confident it will. This year has been about getting healthy, figuring life out stateside, adjusting to homeschool and a new baby. We have so many desires to serve and we just continue to find ways to serve as we can. I will definitely be writing more on this in the future though because I have lots of ideas on this subject and can’t wait to share!

Work
Alan has found joy in providing and in his full-time job. I struggled for a bit. I came from an environment where I worked almost full-time and had a lot of help with the kids and keeping up with our household. Life in the states looks very different! I wondered if I would find a “mission” to join and I am so joyous to say that I have. I’ll do a separate post on that work, but I find myself once again with my arms and heart full. I’m finding myself falling into bed so tired at the end of the day but it’s the good kind of tired.

Homeschool
I continue to homeschool our big girls and Iris listens in on a lot too. She’s going to be so smart! The girls are thriving in the homeschool environment and continue to amaze me with their genuineness, love for learning, friends, and desire to do good.

So what’s ahead for the Perez family? I’ll be sharing our goals for 2019 next month as well as an update to a post I did this time last year about our core values. I’ll also be launching a few new features on the blog I am excited for as well, in the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving from our family and this little turkey especially!