Our approach to furlough has morphed over the years much like its terminology. Call it deputation, furlough, home assignment ... they are different shades of the same grey.
The very first official Sunberg deputation was actually two childless twenty-somethings on the road talking about their mission to a Moscow about which we knew almost nothing.
We approached our second furlough with a 9 month old in tow. She crawled at 11 months and took her first steps some 6 weeks later at a friend's house in Florida. We have always believed that her crawling was delayed by the hours she spent in a car seat criss-crossing the country.
A few furloughs later, we hit the road with a full family of 6 in a huge red conversion van loaned to us by a generous +Gene Westveer. Look back through this blog's archives and I think you will find a heart-warming post about our adventures in the van. The girls still remember it as the best 'ride' we ever used for a summer.
Then, there was the furlough where we started in Washington with our friends +Brian Reckling and +Erica Reckling. On the evening that we arrived, Erica pulled out 4 little matching night-gowns lovingly made by her mother. Our Jenny still wears the one that was made for Lexi on that furlough six years ago. It was also the infamous jetlag morning, when I was standing in the Recklings kitchen sipping my first coffee and Lydia bounced into the room. The night before, all four had been absolutely enthralled by the refrigerator that distributed water and ice from the door. Lydia looked from me to the refrigerator and back to me several times, put her hands on her waist, cocked her head to one side, and said 'Mommy, do you think we could take that back to Bulgaria with us?'
Last furlough, the girls and I landed in Indy and picked up the van we had arranged to rent. Jay was already in California a full 2 weeks ahead of us and flew to Indy to drive us back to California. Crazy, yes, but the Sunberg 'women' were jet lagged and I am notoriously directionally challenged. We crossed the country in 2 days, now known as 'the torturous journey' as our bodies fought to find their new time-table equilibrium.
After clocking hours and miles, each Sunberg furlough becomes characterized by a 'travel food'. This happens after we have had our initial feast of all things 'missed'. Eventually, it settles down into one or two foods that just bring joy to the soul. Some of our most memorable: the twizzler the summer, the crunch & munch assignment, and the rootbeer or bust furlough.
Along the way, we have met amazing people, encountered hilarious adventures, traveled through almost every state in the US and racked up memories that bring a family closer than we could have ever imagined. Along the way, I always have a melt down lying somewhere in a questionable hotel room. "What are we doing to our kids?" It always begins that way and the questions pour in.
"Is it good for them to spend endless hours in the car for 3 months?"
"Will they resent the summers that they were strangers bounced from one church to the next while other kids grew up riding bikes and playing with the neighborhood kids."
"What kind of germs and hazardous environments are we bringing them into contact with when we sleep in a different bed almost every night?"
It is funny. This summer, I suggested that we travel less, a suggestion that was met with a unanimous cry of 'no, we love our summers on the road.'
So, the furlough project for A Family On Mission is another attempt to take you with us. We want you to share our experience. Come along as we travel, argue, eat, and encounter the beauty of God's embrace through the arms of our Nazarene family.
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