Let the two worlds talk to each other.
LJH
I am a third culture kid ~ which means I grew up in one country (Belgium) as a part of a family from another country (USA) and therefore created for myself a third identity, a melding of both. Third culture kids tend to have the ability to move between several different worlds, and I am no exception.
I spent 25 years as a stay-at-home mom of 5, and homeschooled for many of those years.
I remember stirring homemade spaghetti sauce all day with my nose in a book, finding out how the story ended, knowing that my husband would not care that I hadn’t gotten anything else done as long as I had a good meal waiting for him.
I remember trying to teach one child, and looking up just in time to see my toddler by the door, pouring a box of Frosted Corn Flakes into my shoes.
I remember sending everyone to their rooms when I got angry, turning on Rich Mullens’ “Where You Are” as loud as it would go, and pouring all my frustration into singing at the top of my lungs until I felt better. (“This is real life, baby. It ain’t no Hollywood dream.”)
I remember conversations with my husband, deciding that we wanted one more.
I remember sitting on the couch until 10 am because I was pregnant and my blood pressure and sugar levels didn’t adjust until then, and marshaling the troops of older children to bring me laundry to fold. Mostly I remember those mounds and mounds of laundry.
I remember realizing that we truly had a big family when it took us 15 minutes to get from the house to the car on Sunday mornings ~ and that was after everyone had coats and shoes on.
Then, in 2004, God opened the door for me to go back to school, and I walked through that door into another world. I got my Bachelor’s in Religious Education in 2007, my Master’s in Theological Studies in 2009, and my PhD in New Testament in 2017. I’ve presented papers at academic conferences and taught internationally. I love this new world, too.
What I really want to see, however, is the two worlds talking to each other.
