My daughter's strange connection to my suitcase

So in April we left Mozambique and the Indian Ocean, and began our travels back to America. For Stefan and I it has been coming "home" in many ways. But the reality is that for our children it was leaving "home" and everything with which they were familiar.

It is June now and we have been on the road and living out of suitcases for two straight months...with two more months of travel on the horizon before we finally settle down for a time. We have had so many neat experiences on our travels...visiting family in Germany, going to Virginia Beach to meet the kids' uncles and aunts, going camping in Kentucky and spending hours visiting with friends.

And it has been so fun to explore life in America through our kids' perspective as they take in so many new experiences...like wearing fun pajamas to bed every night, eating cheerios for breakfast, discovering the hours of entertainment that a playground holds, and watching a rabbit or squirrel in the backyard (strange animals compared to the monkeys and crocodile's they are more familiar with). It has been such a special time. But...we're still living out of suitcases.

Wesley in particular has seemed a bit unsure of all the movement and change and has developed a peculiar attachment to my suitcase. It probably has something to do with the easy access to things that she is not usually allowed to play with like Mommy's make-up or hair dryer. She takes great delight in rummaging through the neat piles of clothes and throwing them up in the air and out onto the floor. She occasionally completely re-arranges the items and I'll find she has re-packed my clothes in HER suitcase. But many times I find her just sitting there...watching all the movement around her. Or I find that she has taken her bowl of snack or box of raisins and, rather than sit in the living room or in the dining room with everyone else, she takes them into my room, climbs into my suitcase, and munches on them in there.

I'm trying not to read too much into it...otherwise I think of things like: "Perhaps this behavior is an indication of extreme insecurity. Maybe subconsciously she is afraid of being left behind and therefore positions herself by (or in this case IN) something that she knows will always be taken along on our journey..." (I know, I know...more than likely she just enjoys playing in a large box like any well-adjusted toddler).

A few weeks before we left Mozambique, I wrote out a memory verse for both Cohen and Christian...truths that I wanted to teach and encourage them with throughout our upcoming travels. Christian has been learning Psalm 46:1 "God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble." And Cohen has been memorizing "The Lord is good, a safe place in times of trouble. And He knows those who come to Him to be safe, " from Nahum 1:7. Obviously one-year-old Wesley is not quite old enough to be comforted by those words or her "own" verse. But the truth is, I think that at their ages (1, 3
and nearly5), all three of my children's feelings of security and safety and peace is much more dependent on the extent that I believe and appropriate those truths than to the extent that THEY understand them. Although it is great that I can remind them of those truths when they are showing fear or anxiety and unrest...I think the reality is that I need to be reminded of them even more. And as I rest in them, the tone atmosphere of my home is changed and the children sense peace and security. It's just something I've been thinking about...

And in the meantime...I'm enjoying the antics of my sweet daughter in her special, mobile, comfy "box."