Life is quiet right now.

Last year my love was in Italy, working crazy hours.  I was in Uganda, only responsible for Eden, but traveling back and forth with court dates and appointments with our other children whose parents were finally united with them.

This year I’m living in middle-of-nowhere Georgia. My daily routine consists of laundry, cleaning, reading, and waiting for the husband to get home from work.  I’m in the second trimester of pregnancy, which means I’m able to eat again, and I am not falling asleep every time I sit down to read.

When I talk to an old friend on the phone they always want an update on what’s going on and how we’re doing.  It doesn’t take very long and not much changes from conversation to conversation.

I’m ok with that.

My life with kids was crazy, and in a few months, I’ll have a new little precious responsibility.  I’m excited about it, but in the meantime, I’m going to enjoy this little bit of downtime.

How many women have the privilege of being a homemaker sans children, guilt free and without having to worry about making ends meet?

The absence of busyness has also given us a strong start to our marriage.  When J and I got married, we had spent 34 days together in person.  The majority of our relationship was spent communicating via Skype and email.  An international move to a new community only a couple months into marriage has meant that rather than spending our free time with friends, we’ve spent the time with each other. The lack of a community usually is a negative thing, but in our case, it means our friendship has grown deeper.

We live in a culture that encourages five year plans and ten year plans and looking ahead to the future.  I’m not against it, but right now I’m learning to live in the moment. In a few months, our family will go from two to three. In less time than that, my love and I will go back to communicating via Skype and email.  I cry when I think about it, so for the most part, I choose not to think about it.

Today, I’m choosing to enjoy J coming home for his lunch break.  I’m choosing to enjoy only having one car, which means I have to wait for J to come home from work to do the grocery shopping, but which also means that he comes along with me and pushes the cart, while I go through my list, and still forget half of the things because we’re talking about what he did at work that day. I’m choosing to enjoy our quiet evenings, where we sit on our love seat, the one piece of furniture in the room, and watch an episode of White Collar on my computer, which sits on a footlocker, because we don’t have a coffee table.

Matthew 6:25-34 addresses my tendency to worry about the future. Granted, Jesus is addressing his listeners on worrying about having food to eat or clothes to wear, but I think the principle applies.  I can worry about my love’s safety, or his absence, but will worrying “add a single hour to my life?” (v27 NIV)

Instead, I’m enjoying the simplicity of my life, J and I being together, and meditating on Isaiah 26:3 when I start to be anxious: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee.” (KJV)