Today...

I took a photo of the kids in a piece of culvert that someone is using artistically as a front gate. Love it. Want it, even just for kids to climb on, but WHY is it so hard to get a photo of all of them smiling? This one was almost perfect. But Solo!

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I've been thinking about yesterday, and about 9/11/01. Chinua and I were just three days married. We were still in Canada. We crossed the border into the US the next day, Chinua almost frantic to be back, feeling so strange to be away in a time of crisis. We drove our little car down the West Coast. I was twenty-one. Our rainbows and starbursts were over and I cried. I felt like nothing would ever be the same. I could barely watch the news, the people still looking for loved ones.

I'm so sorry, I still want to say today.

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Life lately feels like a river. I'm standing in it and I can see where I've come from, but there's a bend ahead of me, and I can't see ahead. All I can do is allow it to pull me forward. Stop insisting that I see what's there before I give up to the current. Lie back and let it carry me along, smile at the sky, at the trees almost touching overhead.

It's hard.

But one day, I'll be in another point in the river, looking back. I'm realizing that what really matters is not what that point looks like, but how I live from here to there.

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Chinua and I made a silly video for my Mom's birthday. If you want a little extra Chinua randomness and kid cuteness, you can watch it here.

YaYa was just on fire while we were filming. She is the sparkliest girl. I really love how everyone is just themselves, in the video. I guess they're just themselves, all the time. It's the best way to be. It seems to be effortless for them.

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Time is ticking and we're going to be on the road again soon, this time for the last little journey before we reach Goa and stay there for quite awhile. These years of so much travel have been amazing, but we know we need a house we can stay in all year. That much we know. Thus, the bend in the river. We can't say yet, where that will be.

God before us, God behind us, God breath of Life- through us and in us, God sustaining us.

I have to say I have perhaps never simply enjoyed living in a place like I have loved living in Pai for this last month and a half. It is the most beautiful place. I'll be sure to take you around and show you my favorite things before we go.

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And the last thing. I have a new blog design! It's different, but familiar enough, I think, that we don't feel disoriented and lost.

Things needed to be cleared out- it were getting cluttered, and I don't like clutter. The few episodes of Hoarders that I've watched have horrified me, when it comes to clutter. Not that I'm comparing my blog to a home on Hoarders.

But there's another reason I've made room in my sidebars.

I'm opening up my blog for sponsorship. I'll be putting more details together, but if you are interested in sponsoring journeymama.com and letting the world know what it is you have to offer, feel free to email me at journeymama[at]gmail[dot]com, and I'll give you the lowdown.