Family life unmasked

So we have had a LOT of visitors recently! It's been wonderful. If you live overseas, you will know how much of a gift it is when people take the time to come and get to know your world. 

Relationships are deepened. The unknowns here suddenly become known to family and friends and we feel more whole, more connected, more understood. Points of reference are laid for future skype conversations, memories are made and packages of goodies are shared from our other "home".  

We will never take for granted a friend or family member who is willing to make the financial and time investment to come and see us. . . . and we say thank you to those who have come and to those that are to come!

Grandma and Grandad came in February. It was the first time they'd made it to Thailand and it was huge to share our world with them. 

Travelling is no mean feat when you're 87 and we were all so impressed with how Grandad navigated outings with his handy walker.

2 days after waving off the grandparents, our good friend Auntie Susie arrived. Susie wins the prize for my most faithful visitor having visited me in Mexico, US, India, Sri Lanka and now Thailand. She has shared a lot of worlds with us and we love that. 

And then we had the joy of my sister - basically nothing beats sisters in my book. The time went by all too fast.  

Each of these visits were a huge blessing to us and we hope to them. . . .but not without some tension. The thing about having people stay with you for long periods, is you are exposed - family life in all it's glory! This was term-time and life was full and busy. Kids were overtired and overwhelmed, adults were over-reactive and over-stressed and there were times when everything was bubbling over! 

Who wants to go on a bike ride?

We were grateful when guests mucked in to cheer up a grumpy kid, or when space was given to calm and settle after a busy day or when kids were invited out to give me some space to make dinner!

It's in these times that we all want to be shown grace and to know we're not being judged.  In the middle of all these ups and downs, I reflected that if we wanted to preserve a glowing image of our kids and our parenting, then we should probably limit our visitors to a few weeks in the summer when everyone is relaxed and perhaps some time over Christmas break (or maybe not even that!).  But the truth is actually, deep down, we want to be known in our mess - because only then can we be loved for who we are, mummy meltdowns and all.

So we embrace the visitors! We already miss the ones that have gone and we're excited for the ones who are coming this spring and summer (you know who you are!). Just know, there will be no hiding behind masks. If you see our rough edges, we ask for grace and if yours are exposed, we promise to show you grace too. Thank you in advance for loving us just as we are.