What I'll Miss...

We will be in the U.S. in less than two weeks but we'll be leaving here in 7 days. I remember the days when I worried about a 5+ hour plane ride with small children and though I'm not really excited for the traveling process - I'm feeling really fortunate for how we get to go. We take a direct flight from Dushanbe (Tajikistan's capital) at 3:40am next Saturday (we'll leave our apartment in our city at 11:45pm Friday night to get to the airport a couple hours early) and we fly for 5-ish hours to Frankfurt where we will actually just get off the plane and stay with Rees' cousin and her husband in Kahrlsruhe for almost 6 days before getting on another direct flight on the 16th from Frankfurt to Seattle (supposedly lasted 10-ish hours). I can't imagine just taking one flight at a time. It's been so long since we've boarded a plane, flew somewhere and simply got off and didn't have to make a connection or entertain the kids during a layover or whatnot. I have to say - they are excellent travelers. We have certainly had our miserable moments but for how young they were when we started all this traveling stuff - we can really only be thankful for how well they do. Thank the Lord.
But that's all beside the point :). I wanted to just make a list of the things I'll miss while we're away from Tajikistan (although, I think we'll just be so happy to be in the states with many of our loved ones that we won't REALLY miss all these things too acutely):
- inexpensive and yummy fruits and veggies in season (I've been buying summer apples for about 80 cents for a kg - 2.2lbs, cucumbers for about 40 cents a kg)
- not having to heavily schedule everything because the culture is really present-minded
- fresh bread out of the tandoor or oven
- neighbors
- our Tajik family and village - the kids LOVE helping their bobo (grandpa), moma (grandma) and aunties with the chores: milking the cow, digging up potatoes, planting seeds, sweeping the yard, washing dishes and anything else they can find in the outdoor spicket. We usually sit around on their outdoor cot (platform) under the grape vines and talk and laugh at the kids.
- Our dear friend and language helper, Gulzira and her family
- lots of neighborhood kids for the kids to play with and lots of dirt for them to "cook" stuff out of
- our AMAZING team here who have become a second family to us
- the temperate fall evenings when the kids can play outside and the women side outside and chat
- the simplicity of our lives
- the culture of hospitality
- using certain Tajik words and phrases that just seem to fit what I'm trying to say better than English does
- the clear purpose we live with here (not that we can't live with purpose while we're in the U.S. but there's just more things that can crowd it out or make it cloudy)

I'm sure that there are more but those are the ones that come to mind and frankly, I wanted to get them listed before I made a list of what I won't miss :). Or maybe a better way to put it is the things that I'm looking forward to in the states.