A Visit From Down Under

One of my fave, fave, FAVOURITE things about living in Chicago is that we occasionally get visits from my former students living around the globe.

And today was one of those days. Angela had a 6-hour layover on her way from Australia to Canada. So we raced to O'Hare to whisk her away, and promptly spent 5 hours talk, talk, talking!

Angela is a girl after my own heart. See?

There are a ba-zillion reasons I love MKs {missionary kids} and in particular my missionary kids {I claim them as my own because, well, I love them. And I had them for 3 years. That's why!} But anyway, these are just a couple of reasons I love MKs ...

Within about 30 seconds of being together we jumped right to that deep level of friendship. Skipping all the "How are you? How was your trip?" niceties. And on to the, "So what is really going on inside? What are you struggling with? What is God doing in your life?" Those types of questions. There's this bond that supersedes borders and countries and time and literally within seconds/minutes, you want to get right to the heart. Perhaps it's because you know time is often limited so you just can't do the pleasantry stuff. But I really think it's more than that. It's just this "someone knows that part of my life and my world and they get me. They understand me." There's a level of trust and I think really, it comes down to the fact that these kids are family to me.

And another thing I LOVE about my MK kids is that my own biological kids have aunties and uncles all around the globe that totally love them. Maddie is at the age where she totally remembers those she's met before. She was heart-broken on the way to school today because "we were going to get more time with Auntie Angela than she was." She knows and loves Auntie Angela. And so, when we picked Maddie up from school, she ran out the door and right into an Auntie Angela hug.

And Jackson instantly went to Angela. My kids have this keen sense that these are important people to me, so they become important to them.

And of course, we always love Auntie Joy. We're spoiled to have her living just a few blocks away, but we'll take her visits any time we can get them. And it just so happens that she and Angela have been dear friends for 23 years, growing up in the same village in Irian. And so they got to reconnect today, too.

And the sun was shining. Brightly. Felt so good.

In fact, I almost pulled out my flip-flops just like Angela. Because I knew SHE wouldn't make fun of me.