So of course Eliana cannot actually ask this question yet, however, sometimes, as we strap her in her car seat or sit her on our laps in the plane, her eyes ask this very question. "Daddy, do I live anywhere?" "Daddy, is my life always going to be this mobile?" Poor kiddo.
We've had a voracious travel schedule the past few weeks and a busy month beginning in the end of April that will carry on mid-way through June. And Eliana has championed her car-seat throne, the laps of both mommy and daddy on the plane and braved the new beds. We've been in the Bay Area at least 4 times, she's been to D.C. to meet a future "P-girl baby friend" and she got to meet her Mexico family in Cancun and D.F. Tio Saul came out for a visit to San Francisco and the farm, and soon we head to Lodi for her Grand-Pop's funeral (he lived to almost 91). She'll meet Aunt Melanie, Uncle Mark and will adore her cousin Lexi. Currently her Aunt Katie and Cousin Jack are here visiting and we'll all be heading up to Oregon (7 hour drive or more) to see Aunt Stacy and Uncle Nick at family camp.
In this time, if she could count, Eliana will have slept, at the minimum, in 12 beds (usually she transfers from the bed she's in by herself to the one we are sleeping in).
Eliana has had spring weather that changed to winter rain instead of summer heat. Then she found incredible humidity at the coast of the Yucatan, and great heat to boot. In Mexico City, she endured an uncharacteristically warm time there, where we all tried to sleep without sweating, to return to the Bay Area and Chico where it is cold and rainy.
"Daddy, do I live anywhere?" What a question to try to answer, and in ways the poor little one can understand. She is in our arms through the change, and she rides each change out incredibly. We've been blessed with a flexible daughter. Eliana begins her life, before we even reach the field, as a missionary, but what, at least we hope, sustains her through the many changes is the incredible amount of love she receives in each place and the comfort of her mommy and daddy's arms.
"God, do I live anywhere?" I have to ask. We have a place we call home in Chico, but we know that it is only very temporary. Lately we've spent more time away from Chico than we have at it. We are very comforted by the loving reception of our friends and family and by the secure arms of our God who guides us and holds us through the changes.
