Name Change

Guess the African Groggs blog will have to have a name change.  Not sure to what quite yet.  Too be honest, I still feel like an African Grogg.  But in reality, we are American Groggs again (and always were really).  Our family just went to DAR (which stands for debriefing and renewal) for a week in Colorado.  The great thing ab this time for me was that while Jon & I were debriefing, with a theme for each day, the kids were doing the exact same thing.  One day they gave each of us balls of yellow and blue play doh.  First we were told to squish the two balls together, then try to pull them apart.  Impossible.  Next we rolled the squished balls into one ball...and it looked similar to the globe now w/ the two colors mixed together.  The yellow represented "me" before moving overseas.  The blue represented who "I" became in my new culture and country.  The end product was the person I am now, a "world christian" was the term they used.  The kids, however, came back from class w/ green play doh.  They got to mix their blue and yellow play doh together, representing that they are neither "American" or that of their second culture, but they are both.  And the two colors will forever be mixed; cannot be separated.  They are what is known as TCKs, third culture kids (there is a book called Third Culture Kid if you ever feel like learning more ab these amazing kids and the challenges/joys they face growing up).  No doubt ab it: we are blessed by our time as "workers", we have been changed by our time in Africa, and this is the hardest transition we have made so far.  The kids aren't sure which direction is up at this point.  We are all looking forward to moving into a rental house in Manhattan, KS on August 1...and watching the Lord unfold the things He has planned for us.  Exciting, scary, happy, & sad are just a few of the emotions we have been experiencing since saying goodbye to our life in Africa on May 23rd.  Maybe blogging can help me continue the "debriefing" process.  Hahaha I always say that :)