always remember

In anticipation of our move back to the US, we've spent a lot of time in the last several weeks looking at houses online. While the kids salivate over the large backyards, I easily get carried away in the excitement of furnishing and decorating our new home.

But I'm quickly humbled (once again) the minute we step out of our cushy expat lifestyle and open our eyes to life around us.

Our drive to church each week is beautiful. We are surrounded by beautiful landscape.

But the scenery quickly turns to this as we pass the poorer neighborhoods and the guilt sweeps over me for ever complaining about broken appliances and small apartments:

My heart aches for the people that struggle each day to just put food on the table; the barefoot kids that juggle tennis balls at the stoplights in front of our car in hopes that we'll pay them something for their entertainment. Anything we do never really seems like enough to really help. I hope these images will forever be imprinted in my mind and the minds of my children. I hope we always remember how incredibly blessed we are in so many ways.