Farewells - again!

Sometimes missionary life is a bit like one of the songs from The Sound of Music - 'So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye'. Today was another farewell day as we took Daniel and Matthew to the airport to begin their journey back to India - three planes, five trains and a seven hour taxi ride up the mountain. The first leg took them as far as Tokyo and unfortunately they had to fly on the busiest day of the year on the busiest air route in the world. After negotiating the crowds at the airport, they were off and we all adjust again to life as four in Sapporo and two in India. Daniel and Matthew are very much third culture kids - Scottish boys living in Japan and at school in India. The last few days we have packed a lot in and there are always last-minute things to be bought, forms to be completed and the usual challenge of fitting everything in to the cases while keeping them within the weight limit. The boys should arrive at the school early on Tuesday morning, unpack, get things sorted in the dorm and be ready for the start of the new school year on the Wednesday. As it happens, the younger two boys go back then too so by the middle of this week we will all be back in routine again - until the next homecoming in December.

An unusual lifestyle

Sometimes we are four in the house; sometimes, as now, we are six. The older two boys come and go to India and their holidays this time coincide with the long winter break for Japanese schools. Calum goes back on the 20th, Alistair on the 21st, Daniel begins his journey back to India from the 24th and Matthew begins his journey on 1st February. Our lifestyle is certainly not normal - but then again, what is normal? Life is quite chaotic in the house just now. Daniel needs to work for his mock GSCE exams which will take place as soon as he gets back - we are thankful for German friends to help him with that language as we are both somewhat rusty. Advanced calculus is more of a challenge! Calum has to complete lots of pages of homework given out over the holidays. Matthew is meant to be working on music theory and clarinet pratice as well as learning the whole script of the Joseph musical which he will take part in at half-term. And even Alistair has a chart to colour in each day for kindergarten. Trying to find time, space and quiet for each one to get their own thing done is a daily logistic feat. But it's fun to have everyone back - and then we will all adjust again to a different lifestyle next month.

What is normal?

We've been back in Japan six months. Someone asked us recently whether things have settled down into some form of normality? Good question but not an easy one to answer. We left Scotland at the end of March having had a year back. Calum changes to Japanese school again. Alistair goes back to kindergarten. David leaves again immediately for India for spring half-term. We have a new house, live in a new area, begin to make new friends. We go round different churches for some months. Daniel and Matthew return for the summer holidays. They go back. We begin services in our home. Lorna goes to India for autumn half-term. In ten weeks time the older two will come back again, this time not to sun but to snow. And those are just the main events in our life story. What is normal? In many ways our lives go in cycles of abnormality. But within those in a strange kind of way things become 'normal' - until it all changes again! It's certainly not a dull life.