The Last Five Years

Merry Christmas to my lovely readers!

Today is a day full of anticipation as Clay flies in tonight, and I am being taken to dinner by a group of my beloved friends. It is an exciting time.

The end of 2011 brings much reflection on our time in Arkansas, and even more anticipation of building a life in Indiana.

Five years ago, as we began our journey here, I found it a difficult culture to understand. As I smiled and reached out to strangers, many of them shut the door in my face. There were comments about "yankees" and "your kind"...never in my life did I imagine there was such an aversion to people like me who spoke differently.

The kids and I set out on a journey to understand by visiting Civil War sites and learning as much as we could about the Southern perspective. It took a while, but we began to see that the invasion of this land has left an enduring scar.

One local storyteller told how it was a quiet, sunny, Sunday afternoon when Union soldiers came over "that ridge right there", and a wave of an "Aha moment" SWEPT OVER MY BODY. The stories of destruction, kidnapping of children, pillaging...these have all been passed down from one generation to another. Sometimes these result in anger or fear, continuing to this day.

I tried to imagine how I would feel if a bunch of hooligans invaded my Grandpa's farm, burnt his dairy barn (his livelihood), stole his grandchild, and raped my Grandma. Well, let's just say, losing that grudge would be very difficult.

So with that chip on our shoulder, we built a life here, made many friends, and had a great time in the sunshine.

We leave Arkansas with a lot of great memories. We leave here with friends. We take our awesome church experience and pray we find something similar in Indiana. I am very thankful to have grown in perspective. I can't change the perspective they have about Yankees, but I do feel thankful that they finally let us "in".

Merry Christmas, Arkansas. Thanks for the memories!!