The Bedford Times-Press Wednesday, July 15, 2020 Page 3

Katherine Strong is turning 90 on July 28, 2020!

To celebrate this special day, we would like to shower her with cards.

Please send cards to 225 West Laperla Drive, Clarinda, Iowa 51632.

Kole and Brenda Thompson were united in marriage on July 11th, 2020. They would like family and friends to join them in the celebration of marriage on July 18th at 6:00 p.m. at the Bedford American Legion. Casual dress and meal will be served.

Thompsons wed July 11

We love you.Love,

Your kids and grandkids

Happy 40th wedding anniversary Dad and Mom

KudosKudos to… The Stockwell family for the red, white, and blue wrapped hay bales with the American flag up top, along Highway 148.

In the Middle “Change is inevitable.

Growth is optional.” —John Maxwell

We were 38,000 feet in the air somewhere over the mid-Atlantic Ocean before something tripped inside me, causing me to turn around and slap Ruthie on the knee in her seat behind me.

“We are MOVING. To KANSAS. To LIVE there!” It’s not that I hadn’t known this before—I’d been orchestrating the entire transatlantic move for months!

But somehow my mind and heart had compartmentalized all the realities that came with moving “home,” mostly the excitement of seeing family again after such a long time.

But it’s sort of a protective measure; until we were strapped into our seats and traveling at high speeds in the direction of the U.S. of A., there were too many roles and responsibilities that needed carried out in Belgium.

S h i p m e n t s , car detailing and decontamination, house cleaning and inspections, out-processing, service cancellations, bank ac-count closing, and the most harrowing of all...the farewelling.

Besides the distraction of our mile-long to-do list, we’ve also come to expect the Army’s plans to fall through on the very best of days, let alone during a world-wide pandemic.

Regardless of our personal level of preparedness, the rate of change happening internationally from one week to the next was enough to remind us that these plans to relocate could come to a screeching halt at any moment.

So the general approach was to put one foot in front of the other, getting things done that needed done, and avoiding things like the sadness of goodbyes and excitement of hellos to come.

All the emotions are too risky while the plans can still be ripped right out from under us.

But when all the requirements were checked off the list, all the suitcases were packed and weighed and labeled, it seemed this move was really going to happen.

Now it seems this would be a natural time for the thrill of coming home to set in, but there were still loose ends. The time had finally come for those inevitable goodbyes.

To coworkers, to favorite places, to best friends, to favorite bakeries, to the big butt cows, to our local zoo, to the lonely pony in the pasture on our drive to school, to the chocolate aisle at the grocery market, to our house and garden, our village, and the two neighborhood roosters.

No, I didn’t go down the street and shake hands with the rooster to bid them au revoir (roosters don’t have hands), but it was just one of many details from our happy routine in this place that warranted pausing for, to recognize and appreciate before moving on.

This place had truly become home, and it’s no wonder since it’s the longest we’ve ever lived in one place in more than 16 years in the Army.

Due to a lifestyle of constant moves, we don’t waste time when we arrive to someplace new. There’s no time to waste, so we dive in head first, making fast friends and embracing the new normal around us. But it’s not easy.

Each and every time you arrive and attempt to make it “home”, you’re still longing for the “home” you just left. There’s always a piece of your heart missing, a bit of you left behind.

Back in 2014 when left a comfortable little place at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas to embark on our first overseas assignment in Korea, I had no clue what God would unfold ahead of us.

My goal was just to embrace, survive, and maybe somehow even thrive in this new and unexpected (and terrifying!) journey.

I hoped and prayed I would grow along the way. That prayer was answered, and then some....six years later as we have gone a full circle around the globe from Kansas to Korea to Belgium and on to Kansas, we have traveled the world and experienced places and cultures we could have only dreamed of.

And in the process, we passed out little pieces of our hearts to every person and place that left its imprint on us. I have a son who speaks French and thinks he’s a “good little Korean boy.”

He also recently confessed to being scared to start a new school because “making new friends is hard, especially when they don’t speak English.”

The poor kid doesn’t believe me when I tell him all the children at his new school in Kansas will speak English. He’s never attended a school like that.

And I have two girls who share inside jokes about holy water in European Cathedrals, and switch the thermostat in hotels to Celsius because “we don’t know what a comfortable temperature is in Fahrenheit to set it to!”

If there is one thing I’ve learned over the course of this adventure, it’s that the idea of “home” doesn’t come with a set of coordinates or specific address.

When I consider how vast and overwhelming the world seemed six years ago, I realize that it’s now a place I call home, any place, all places, every place I’ve explored and all the places that are still calling to be discovered.

On the seat back screen in front of me, I click to see the map tracking our flight progress. A little jet plane maneuvers across the screen, leaving a perfect line stretching out behind it to show exactly where we’ve been.

When I look at that little jet plane I see the heartbreak of goodbyes, the joys of homecomings, the excitement of ad-ventures on the horizon, anticipation of the unknown and new discoveries that await, the thrill of feeling free and catapulted into a future that God has laid out before us, and exhilarating sensation of free-falling while being held in the security of God’s loving arms. It’s all right there in the little jet plane that flew us around the world in six years.

Leigh Hunt once said, “Traveling in the company of those we love is home in motion.” Isn’t it, though?

As our plane cruises westwardly through the sky and the seatbelt sign blinks on for some heavy turbulence, I look around to my left and right.

One kid giggles and throws his hands in the air like it’s a roller coaster ride, the other two give me a smile and thumbs up, and their dad raises his eyebrows with his huge irresistible grin

and a wink. This is my home. These people are my home. We’ve got each other when skies are clear and when bumps threaten to take us off course.

And while it’s true we have scattered pieces of ourselves across many countries and continents, we somehow, miraculously grow fuller because of it.

And with my entire “home” intact around me, it’s finally time to let that excitement bubble to the surface.... We’re moving. To Kansas. To live there. See you soon, family and friends.

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