Tuesday, February 5, 2013

A personal note ...

As some readers of this blog may know, Janine is overseas on a two-week mission trip with our church to Cambodia. (see my post, January 31). This is the fifth trip our church has done and each year, around 15 people pay their own way to connect with our partner organisations in Cambodia.
I've traveled there five times. (To read about the trip, click here)
The thing I wasn't prepared (for as the partner who stayed at home) were the feelings of loneliness in an empty house. Quite caught me by surprise. Work helped and as a self-employed contractor, it helped that I had some clients to meet with and then complete web, PR or video productions.
I have a new appreciation for the many times that I went away and Janine told me that the worst time was at night with no one to talk to.
For some reason, we can't regularly connect with SMS, something to do with network incompatibility I think, so we have had to rely on using a friend on the team's mobile phone to share messages. (I hope they get deleted before her husband sees them)
I sure have a new appreciation and understanding of what it is to be the stay at home partner and maybe I won't be so willing to hop on a plane next time.

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