Home from Togo (Part 2)

see part 1 here (our departure from Togo)

In Part 1 I wrote a bit about spending 10 days in Ohio before driving out to Nebraska – our final destination. These first pictures are from the time we spent at a little rental that my “uncle and aunt” let us stay in when we first arrived stateside. We were so grateful to have a place to unwind.

Noah and Rafi loved the animals and tractors…

When we were tired of being inside we went outside and found some concrete blocks to play with, just like Africa.

There was a little orchard out back with some untended white peach trees. The peaches were small, unripe, and very fuzzy, but to Noah they were nectar.

I may not want to be a Buckeye permanently, but I’ll always hold a special place in my heart for finding a buckeye tree.

Don’t let that picture fool you ^^. He might look like a farmer, but he’s actually scared of cows:

On the road again…featuring $2 swim floaties I found at an Ohio thrift store.

Ryan had lined up a furnished rental for our first few months in Nebraska so we wouldn’t have to worry about getting our furniture and digging into our storage unit right off the bat while adjusting to life in the States and starting a new job. (Although as I write this, we have made 3 trips to the storage unit for things we need, mostly winter clothing!) It’s in a close suburb and has a fenced-in postage stamp yard, and I’ll be honest – I was feeling very claustrophobic for the first few days.

I’m very grateful that we live within walking distance of 2 nice parks + a bike trail, and we’re close to a huge lake surrounded by more trails. We are also not far from one of the best zoos in the nation. I just renewed our yearly membership, which we love to use during the winter when there’s hardly anyone there. The animals are always glad to see us.

First Sunday porch picture at our rental in Nebraska!

Trapped – that’s how I felt the first few days. America was all pavement and polyester. Artificial and artifice. No privacy, but no friends. The rooms of our rental were filled with fragrence dispensers, and I removed about 10 dryer sheets from hangers, wall hooks, and floor registers. (The previous renters did a number on the place, by the landlord’s account.) There’s an autolock on the door, and motion sensors that call out every time a door is opened. (The children are convinced that the keypad is saying, “Africa,” despite my attestations that it’s actually saying, “input error.” The doorbell is a novelty that I could do without.) I get so weary of shoes, socks, jackets, and carseats every time we want to go somewhere. How I miss walking my daily 2 miles in flip flops, no need to drive anywhere, finding friends at each turn, children barefoot and sunkissed.

It’s a furnished rental, but not necessarily furnished for a family who eats 3 meals a day at home. I thought this plate from the thrift store was so pretty. I have dreams of a farmhouse kitchen done up in blue and white!

My 18 month old was terrified of the bathtub the first time I put him in and refused to sit down. All he knew was a stone shower or the utility sink! The whole house felt dark and stuffy; where are my industrial-strength ceiling fans and louvred windows? I miss my tiled floors; the simple, open floor plan of our Togo houses. And the AC is so cold! McDonalds while traveling gave me major sticker shock…and there were so many options I didn’t know what to order.

Granola is one constant in our lives. I have two recipes, HEALTHY and UNHEALTHY. Take your pick.

But for all the difficulties, there are so many positives. Reconnecting with old friends. Being welcomed back into the MOPs (now MomCo) fold. All the beautiful parks and libraries available in a big city. Ice cream from the grocery store on sale for $2 (that hasn’t been thawed and frozen with each power outage). And the fruit! The children were SO impressed with the huge, spot-free bananas. A glass of cold cow’s milk goes down a treat. So much variety, and all just a pick-up order away. I can pay with a credit card instead of scrounging for small bills to pay everyone. I can get all my laundry done in one load with the GIGANTIC washing machine – and dry it too! And may I never, ever, ever forget how magical a dishwasher is.

You can take the girl out of Africa, but you can’t take Africa out of the girl:

But wow, I always forget what a job it is to set up a new life in a new house, especially when I’m trying to sort my life into someone else’s furniture. This is now the 4th furnished house we’ve lived in since packing away our own furniture. When you move all your own stuff, you have drawers earmarked for certain things, but when you’re using someone else’s furniture, there’s a constant juggling act going on. And where did I put the fingernail clippers?? I’m starting to feel like I’ve sorted my life into bins too many times….marked time by wondering, “how many of these projects can I get done before we move again?”

But I’m still pinching myself at the luxury of a hot water kettle that heats up in a matter of a minute or two, and putting dishes in the dishwasher and having them out of sight, and being able to use my Vitamix blender again! Made my first fluffy protein shake in years, and the children loved it. Expect family-sized shake and drink recipes from now on.

Blender applesauce…

So thankful for some easier protein sources here in the States. And berries. I really missed berries.

Happy to report that the sourdough starter I started from scratch in my first little kitchen in Louisiana made it to Togo and back!

We rigged up a makeshift sandbox in the backyard…

Played lots of ball while it was still warm outside…

And found bikes and a bike trail to ride them on.

I’m so thankful that Ryan is enjoying his new job, and we’ve found some churches that we really appreciate. We will likely wait until spring to move again into a longer-term rental, or buy something with a bit of land to roam and garden and have some animals. As Hadassah told me soon after we got to Ohio, “I miss Africa! We could go outside by ourselves whenever we wanted!”

The children have done well. They were real troopers for the first week or two. By the time we got to Nebraska they were starting to fray a bit, and the adjustments caught up to us for a few weeks. But things seem to be settling out now, and we’re getting into a rhythm with homeschooling kindergarten and keeping up with daily life. I have all my sewing stuff now and work on quilting or embroidery when I have spare moments.

Sewing is good therapy when you’re trying to build your life from scratch again.

A couple weeks after moving I was about 85% convinced that I should totally delete the blog so I could just stop thinking about it and all the upkeep it entails. Still working on a solution to that one. I’m not the person I used to be. My priorities are way different, I don’t really follow THM (although I still use some of the ingredients), and I’m getting turned off by social media influencers and marketing. But blogging is too much work to not get paid for, and marketing makes the money. I enjoy the creative part – recipe creation and photography – but the social media part gives me hives. I should hire someone, but that also sounds stressful. If you’ve blogged and employed a VA (virtual assistant), I’d love to hear how that worked for you.

Hadassah in a “princess dress” that your girl from the 90s wore:

I’m grateful to be here.

I’m grateful that Africa taught me to be a more free-spirited person. More open to others. Less self-focused. (I think.)

I miss my people. The fellow moms in the trenches of motherhood and missions and Togolese life. My “nieces and nephews” who came knocking on my door at 7am to play with my children.

I’m thankful to have more quiet time with my children here than I had in Africa. To have quiet mornings in pajamas.

I smile when Hadassah wants to share a room (and a bed) with Noah because, “I’ll be lonely if he’s not here!”

I’m pleasantly surprised that Rafi loves car travel, after not experiencing a car seat since 5 months of age. We put him right into an upright seat because he was way too big for the infant seat we took to Africa and he loves to look out the window and point out combines and cement mixers with Noah.

I’m surprised and grateful that we have already made new friends AND been able to host friends old and new in our home. God provides people wherever you go if you’re open to it. Turns out there’s a significant number of West African immigrants in this area and I met 2 Togolese families at the park within the same week. Hearing French with a Togolese accent made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and greeting one of them in French and seeing his look of pleased surprise made my day.

So happy to be back at “our” zoo! Even better to visit with cousins:

Found some lantana outside the orangutan exhibit!

One of many trips to the storage unit to unearth our winter clothes and other necessities

Avocado toast in the sunshine – another treat.

This feels like home now. I think that when you move around a lot, you learn what really constitutes home. It’s not the place, or even the things (although having familiar items does help). It’s the heart that you put into living. God is already there, and He will match your efforts and bring people and experiences into your life if you open yourself up to them.

Would I go back to Togo? Yes, yes I would. Happily.

Am I excited about our life here right now? Also yes. That has not always been the case, but God has worked to bring me to this point. He has things to teach me in Nebraska, just like He had things to teach me in Mango, Togo. And He’s the same God.

We kind of like snow, but it’s a shock to the system.

Rafi’s comfort mechanism of choice:

Updating old recipes, like this hot chocolate:

Addendum:

As usual, I wrote this a little while ago and am just now getting it published. Many of my thoughts still hold true, but with time some of the rawness has worn off. I would say that our transition stateside has gone remarkably well, and I’m so grateful for that. Ryan still enjoys his job. We feel fairly settled, although we’re still in our furnished rental. We recently began searching for houses of our own in earnest and will definitely be glad to get settled in our own place. We’re homeschooling Hadassah at home for kindergarten, and she is taking to reading like a duck to water. That’s been so fun. One of the hardest things right now is being inside so much because it’s blitzing cold outside most of the time – and windy to boot. My dream once we get settled in our own place is to have a playhouse outside so the children can get some fresh air but maybe with walls and a space heater so they’ll stay out for more than 10 minutes at a time. =)

Don’t miss the earlier posts in my Togo series! You can see an index here.

• Life in Togo
• Life in Togo: the Basics
• Life in Togo: the Arrival
• Life in Togo: Culture
• Life in Togo: Climate & Cooking
• Life in Togo: Language & Church
• Life in Togo: Fabric (Pagne)
• A Week in Togo
• Life in Togo: Things I’ll Miss and Things I Won’t
• Life in Togo: Common Scenes
• Rainy Season & Goodbyes
• Home from Togo (Part 1)
• Home from Togo (Part 2)