Processing “what just happened” takes a long time.
It is much like the adoption process – something I know
about. Don’t know about giving birth
because I did not do that – just did the adoption route.
The beginning: Our
Bishop brought up the subject of going on a mission to us. At first my thoughts were for my
grandchildren. My heart said, “NO! I just want to spend the rest of my days playing
with my grandchildren (I did not think of them ever growing up but staying
little and wonderful to play with)”. But
he wisely let the suggestion sink in and a few weeks later we looked at each
other and said, “Ok. Let’s do
this”, we said that about adoption – OK
let’s do this! But we had no idea what was in store. The promise was, You can play with your
grandchildren after the mission is over.
A Mission is the chance to serve the Lord Jesus Christ to the best of
our ability on a full time basis – what a privilege.
The Papers: Endless
papers and then more papers, doctors’ visits, tests, decisions, and then more
papers. When we decided to adopt there
were papers and more papers to fill out and endless questions about our
attitudes etc., the papers for a mission
are an effort for someone elsewhere to read and try to determine if we could
last the course that we had now chosen to follow. The adoption agency wanted to be sure that we
could take care of a little one and raise it properly and more importantly
could we provide for its needs etc. to maturity – but no one who starts out as
a parent with homemade or store bought children is ever guaranteed that all or
any of them will last the distance because life takes care of that aspect; So we dutifully filled the papers out, the
doctor had his clerk fill them out and all were sent in.
Waiting: Waiting is
not something I am good at and never have been.
My mother used to say that Patience is a virtue, possess it if you can,
seldom found in women and never in a man.
We waited and worried about the application papers – would we be found
adequate to the task ahead? Would they
take a chance on us doing what was asked?
Better yet, what is being asked for this mission?
Watching for the postman:
Ah yes, the federal government worker in the blue uniform who brings
bills, magazines, advertisements, political papers and mission calls. Many people were waiting anxiously for us to
get the mission call in the mail and we were under strict instructions to call
them as soon as the letter arrived so that they would also know what and where
we would be.
SKYPE: I am grateful
for Skype. It is a program on the
internet that allows us to talk to our family and see them at the same
time. I can also see the progress in
growth of my grandchildren so it will not be such a shock to see these ‘big’
kids when we get there. Sara wanted us
to open our mission call while Skype was running and so we did. All her family was gathered and Bill and I at
our respective computers and the letter was opened – You have been called to
work in the New Hampshire, Manchester Mission!
What’s next?: Well,
the adoption agency had a series of interviews with us, set up parenting
classes and required that we attend all of them and then when we were properly
prepared (can you ever be prepared for parenting?), you get your baby. Preparation for our assignment took the form
of going to the Missionary Training Center in Provo and going through the
process of learning about digital cameras and how to take the pictures.
The fun begins: We
embarked on child rearing with gusto. We
did the same on this mission – we approached it with gusto and my blog records
what happened along the way. Eventually
the children left home and made lives for themselves. We went through the duties set for us and now
we have ‘left home’ and are going back to our home in Arizona. As with children, who come with no operating
manual, the operating manual we were given for the digital cameras were written
in such technical language that we could not understand it and the problems of
blurred images left us discouraged and wondering if we had taken the right
course to begin with. But we survived
the children growing up and we have survived the digital cameras and all that
went with a mission.
ALL WE HAVE TO DO NOW IS TO SIT BACK AND PROCESS WHAT
HAPPENED AND DISTIL OUT OF IT THE LESSONS WE NEEDED TO LEARN.
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