“Where is Home?”

Posted on October 25, 2011 by Deanna

“Where is home?” is often such a daunting question for our family, only slightly less than “Where are you from?”  This was recently brought to light again with the publishing of our most recent prayer letter, in which we apparently ran the risk of confusing our readers. That’s okay–it is just evidence that we are often confused ourselves.  Dual citenzenship does that to you sometimes.

Having been born in the States, the U.S.A. is truly our native home land.  It is the place where our children were all born (in the same hospital, no less.)  It is also the place where all of our extended family resides–every parent, grandparent, uncle, aunt, sister, brother, niece, nephew, cousin–you get the idea.  It is the place we sometimes miss when special holidays roll around, and often where we long to visit more often than we really can.  That said, we have made Australia our home.  In all honesty, it was God who made this our home, and like many things God does, He doesn’t always give the specifics of “why?” or “how long?”  We’ve actually moved to Australia twice now–talk about confusing.  When we moved the first time, we came to stay for life or until God had finished with us here.  When He took us back to the States rather unexpectedly, we settled in for life in a new and different place there.  And while we bought a house there intending to stay, it never felt like home.  (We were from Florida, not NE Pennsylvania so it really wasn’t “home” despite the fact that it was the USA.  And while it was a beautiful place to live, we felt like strangers when everyone seemed to know or be related to everyone else around us.)  But, God didn’t choose to leave us there, but returned us to the land we had earnestly tried to make home before.  But, we own a house in PA now, that we couldn’t seem to sell before we left.  Because of that (not to mention a skyrocketed housing market in Australia), we may never be able to own a house here.  I guess this is evidence that a “house” does not a “home” make.

Another factor in our “where is home?” dilemma centers around our children.  Most missionary families return “home” from their “field of service” when their kids reach high school age.  On the surface, this is to help prepare them for tertiary education, but sometimes I wonder if there aren’t deeper reasons for this.  You see, it is usually during those high school and university years that young people start to meet other young people, and, well, you know where that eventually leads.  By moving our children back at the dating ages they are, we are adding yet another curve into an already curvy situation.  Questions run through the mind like, “What if they meet and marry an Australian–my grandkids will grow up here, too.” (not that that is a bad thing, but a point of wrestling in my heart and mind…)  That means that if God ever does take us back to the USA, I would be leaving important bits of myself and my family behind potentially.  Not only that, it may mean that our family will cease to be American and forfeit our rights to American Citizenship within a few generations!  How important is this to me?  I really don’t know.

What I do know is this–a little bit of “home” is where the heart is, and my heart is in two places.  I didn’t really choose either, but both were chosen for me–AND my family.  Truly this gives more weightiness to the Scripture that says we are “pilgrims and sojourners” here on this earth–Heaven is our REAL home.  So, if I seem confused, or if I have confused you in anyway, know that I am sure of where my real home is.  Are you?

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