Favorite Things and Reflections

I have been in Texas for a week now. Some of my favorite things from the past week:


~ Jalisco's salsa - the Texas folks will know what I am talking about.


~ sleeping in - it is so quiet here. My house in Nigeria is on a loud compound. Outside my bedroom window is the front gate to the compound, so if I tried to rest during the day, I heard everything and everyone coming in. Plus my dogs barking and the phone always ringing. I joked with the gaurd one day saying "Peter, at 6am, you are really loud and it sounds like you are right in my bedroom! Peter, I really don't like waking up and thinking you are in my room." That made him laugh and he got the point and he is no longer my alarm clock.


~ American Idol. Yeah, I am a junkie.


~ Green grass. Everything is Soooo green in Texas now. I love it! In Nigeria, everything is pretty brown because we are at the end of the 6 months of no rain.


~ Front porch. My parents have a porch that looks over their nice front yard. I love to sit out there and just think and pray and just BE.


~ Anonymity. In Nigeria, white folks are kinda obvious and so people watch everything you do. When it gets annoying, I try to pretend I am a celebrity and that kinda makes it funny. Is definitely a good accountability thing. BUT I enjoyed walking through Target the other day and no one even turned their head to look at me.


~ Twinkie, my faithful dog. I walked into the house from the airport and there she was, whining and jumping around and licking me! I had not seen her for a year, but she knows who her mama is!



~ Shopping. Yeah, I love to shop. I love shopping in Nigeria. But here, it is so easy! No one is shouting out 'baturiya' (white woman), or begging you to shop in their stall. And all the prices are set here in America. I mean, I can't go up to the gal at Target and say "Hey, I know the price on this shirt says it is $15, but how about I give you $8?" That's one thing I love/hate about shopping in Nigeria. You definitely have to be in the mood.


A few days before I left Jos, I was shopping and the guy told me the thing was going to cost $45. I guffawed at him and said "Look, I may look like a white person, but I am really Nigerian and I know the price. So please don't try that." I got him down to $14. :)



The list goes on and on...

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I am really thankful to be home because I have been sick the whole time since I arrived. The two weeks before I left Nigeria, I was feeling really great, so I was like, hey, I don't need to go home. But, not the case. Last week I saw an internal med doctor and she caught a couple infections and got me on antibiotics. Tomorrow I will see my pulmonologist and on Thursday, the infectious disease doctor.



I feel very loved and carried by God during this time of the unknown. Faith really is being sure of what you don't see. I can't see very far. But, as a good friend told me the other day, just keep walking forward. My dad reminded me that God never demotes anyone. He is always out to promote His children to the next level that He has for their lives.



Yesterday, the Lord met with me as I sat on the porch with my coffee. He said that I should pray for complete physical healing and He may choose to answer that. But the prayer that He will DEFINITELY answer is the restoration of my soul.



Praise Him.

Taking off....

I would love to post pics and tell stories, but the reality is my time is taken up these days with preparing to leave on Sunday, April 20th, for a 2 month rest and recuperation time in the States.

Coming under authority with respect and thanksgiving is a key thing the Lord has been working with me on the past couple years. So, when I was in a bind and did not know what to do... God's voice clearly came through and told me to go to my leaders here in Nigeria. So, I went to my supervisor, missionary doc, and personnel director.

They all said the same thing. I need to go to the States to rest and to get some medical check-ups. Maybe all the sickness I have had this past year since I returned to Nigeria is nothing more than just random sickness. Or maybe it is more. So, to rule out some crazy disease on top of the one I already have in my lungs, I will be seeing my pulmonologist, an internal medicine doc, and maybe a tropical disease doctor.

So the past couple weeks have been busy busy with preparations to go. I have been madly checking off things from my to-do list, trying to get all the centers a-ok with medical and nutritional stuff before I leave.

There is much more to say, but time is not on my side (as we say here).

I will be in touch, once I get settled into Texas next week.