Missing Mary....

One of my daughters has joined the Peace Corps and will be serving in an undeveloped country.

I'm very proud of her. She has more courage than I have ever had and I have no doubt she will serve her fellow human beings well.

I see now that her plane has landed and she is in her country. I'm glad she's on the ground.

But I miss her so much, as does our whole family.

I taught my four-year-old grandson where Africa is on the map and where we are. He said, "Why can't we build a bridge there? I told him the ocean is way too big. You can't build a bridge that far. At four, of course, he can understand much more than he can articulate. He said, "But people can build bridges!" I replied, "Yes, they can, but this distance across an ocean is just way too far." He looked at me unconvinced. Surely I had seen the children's book Amazing Structures. Surely I knew about bridges that span amazing lengths. Yes. What he doesn't know is the size of the world and that is impossible to explain, even to a child who has been to Belgium and to China.

Mary was living with us until the time she left. There are things that make my eyes sting. The glass on the bathroom counter that I brought up with Advil for her while she was packing. Her door is slightly ajar as it always was when when was not home. The cardboard packaging that I told her to leave and that I would pick up later. (Yes, it's in the recycling bin now.)

I took some chicken out of the freezer for dinner. I didn't have to think if she might be home for dinner and maybe I should take out more. No, she will not be home for dinner.

Her commitment is for two years. I know it will be an incredible experience, life-changing even. Having lived overseas myself I know there is nothing that clarifies one's vision of life in quite the same way. For Mary, it will be even more so because she will be helping people who need help.

She may or may not have electricity. Yikes. But we are so spoiled. People live without electricity. They live without running water. They live without air conditioning. The temperature was 100 degrees today in the city of her destination. But she can do this. A life with discomfort is how most of the world lives. And she is a strong, determined woman.

She will return, I have no doubt, with greatly increased compassion and love for others. Her heart will be expanded. Her appreciation of life's blessings will be entirely different. She will look at the world through the eyes of someone who has experienced a whole lot more than the average American twenty-something.

Embrace the Peace Corps, Mary. I know you will. God is with you and you are riding on the wings of love and prayers. So proud of you.

Blessed be God in all He plans for us.