Counting the Days

Hello and welcome to the Kearney Countdown. We are down to only three days before we leave Doha for ten days to go home for Ben and Mary's wedding! Wednesday is the big day for us, and we are anxious to be on our way. It is easy to get impatient with the inconveniences of Qatar right now. It takes soooo long to get groceries or take Abbey to school or even wait at a light. It will be heavenly to live our convenient life in Bountiful, even if it is only for a short time.

I'm not saying that these last three months have been horrible. They just haven't been all that convenient. If you can imagine living in the same little town in Utah for 18 years, imagine how set in our ways Brett and I have become. I guess, in all honesty, this move has helped us appreciate the small and large ruts we have established in our life road back home. The word "rut" has always seemed to have a negative connotation, and I think we felt a little stuck in our ruts, but moving to Doha has given new meaning to the word. The well-worn ruts now have become valuable commodities that we can think of when we can't find cupcake papers or ground cinnamon on the grocery store shelf.

Human nature is uncomfortable with change, and we really changed things up with our decision to move to the Middle East. I think we have been up to the challenge, and at the same time, grateful for the new perspective. We have grown closer to each other - yesterday Brett, Abbey, and I spent 20 minutes trying to remember the words to "There's A Hole in Your Bucket," and I taught Abbey how to stitch up her ripped skirt. Yes, these are things we should have been doing in our lovely home in Bountiful, but we had let the demands of the world creep in a little too much to prioritize sometimes. By moving to Doha, it is almost as if we have been able to shut out the loud voice of "have to" and turn up the voice of "get to" or "want to." So as we create new ruts in a very dusty landscape here, I am picking those ruts more selectively and letting the sand give us the ability to be more flexible and fluid as we travel this new adventure.