(un) G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S

A lot of times when I explain my job to people, the immediate reaction is one of envy. I hear the phrase "I wish I could do that!" or "If I were in your shoes I would be doing the same thing!" and "How exciting that you get to travel so much!" quite often. Truthfully, right now there isn't anything else I'd rather be doing. I love my job. I love changing hearts for Africa. I love seeing people's eyes opened to what they had never seen before. I love traveling and seeing parts of the country I would never see otherwise. I love meeting new people and building relationships with churches around the country.

However, there is a hidden un-glamorous side of my job that many don't know about. The constant hotels...eating out all the time...being away from my friends and family...not having a stable church family...not much about my life is routine or stable. There's the little things I never realized I loved so much until I went without: a good iron, having easy access to Sephora, my own pillow, printed and framed pictures of my friends and family... The past few months I've been fine tuning my travel habits. I've started traveling w/ printed/framed pictures of people I love, travel with my own pillowcase, I always grab extra silverware so I can eat in my room...little things that make life on the road a little nicer. The only thing that has not improved, and only gotten worse is my packing. I now take longer to pack and continue to pack way too much. Not good.

I never considered myself a person of routine, in fact -- I always said that I'm a person who thrives in the midst of chaos. I've always said that I love being on the go and change is great! I still agree with these things, but I have realized that I need some sort of routine. I don't like admitting this, but it's true.

It's funny how we want something until we actually have it.
Once we have it we try to get out of it.
Once we're out of it, we regret our decision.

I love how God is challenging and stretching me in ways I never thought I would, and ways I never wanted to be stretched in the first place. I don't love the process, but I love how I'm a better person in the end because of it. I'm not sure when this season of my life will end, but in the meantime I'm going to keep refining my traveling routine, and try to find a way to be a more efficient packer. More efficient packing = less stuff to carry = less stuff to re-pack later on = a happy Ange.