We’ve been wanting to share about this for a while, but time’s been tight these last few weeks.

Here it is: it was hard to leave Canada.

We thought that maybe since we had 6 months in our home country, that we would have had our fill when it came time to leave; but it was still hard.  This feeling of being torn, between our love for our friends and family and the desire to help create positive change within Canada and the knowledge that we’ve been wired to create change elsewhere, is a part of our lives; for us, it’s normal.  The hugs, the tears, the affirmation that this is right, the encouraging words, the quiet pauses, and the laughs remind us that we’ve got our feet in a few worlds (it just seems they’re always stepping out of one and into another).  In all honesty, as hard as it is to say goodbye, we hope that it never stops being difficult.  That feeling of torn proves to us that we still have a place in both worlds.

Here’s the other side: we loved coming back to Slovakia!

Though jet lag attacked us, it was tempered by knowing that great friends awaited us on the other side of the Atlantic.  Familiar faces, scenery, smells, potholes and rhythms of friendship had us feeling like we had slipped back into a beloved sweater on a cold day.  We laughed at ourselves as we gushed over the Slovak countryside in the fall (you should see it) – a different tune than when we first moved.  On Sunday Matthew shared at Mozaika and as we walked from the car up the street to the building, it felt so incredibly normal: just another beautiful Sunday in Nitra.  It felt even more normal when nobody had keys to lock-up after service and so we waited there with friends until 2:30pm (“just like old times” we laughed).

We’re not sure what we were expecting it to feel like to visit Slovakia, but we know it still feels like home.  Freakishly normal.  Saying goodbye to our friends there after just saying hello was difficult.  Again there were hugs, tears, affirmation that this is right, encouraging words, quiet pauses and laughs.

And here we are in a new place, with a different culture, a more tongue-twisting language, unfamiliar streets, a lazy river and confusing bureaucracy, and we know that one day it too will feel freakishly normal.