I Can't Believe We're Here, Part 1

Births, Baptisms and Betrayal

Last week, I listened to a fun podcast episode of Really Very Crunchy. Emily and Jason recounted moments of their content-making career, highlighting I Can’t Believe We’re Here moments. Their stories and laughter met me in my kitchen as they reminisced their channel explosion and all the opportunities it provided them. They’ve met celebrities, written a book, advertised for major brands, and taken trips they never thought they’d take. And they’re going on tour! I can hardly wrap my mind around an existence so different than my own. Still, I celebrated their success from my house in the Himalayas, and I began thinking about some of my own I Can’t Believe We’re Here moments.

Births

• I had my third child by emergency c-section, going through the whole ordeal in my second language. We celebrated her birth not with our families in the States but with our precious church family and community here. My doctor, who I credit with saving my daughter’s life, handed me a framed picture of the two of us and my milky newborn. She sealed the sweet interaction with a cake. The frosted message may as well have read, I Can’t Believe We’re Here.

• I sat nearby my husband as a young man made a profession of faith and received the gift of salvation. My mom and dad were visiting, and we were engaged in idle talk while a miracle occurred a few seats over. I eavesdropped on this heavenly moment thinking how angels were rejoicing and how one day I would sing next to them a chorus of I Can’t Believe We’re Here.

• I attended the labor and delivery of our assistant pastor’s son. Neeraj was just beyond his teenage years when he tutored my husband in the local language and became our friend and partner in ministry. I held Samjhana’s hand and rubbed her back in her first several hours in the general ward.¹ Fear gripped her as she watched other women in advancing stages of labor, and I prayed aloud over her as I felt many eyes in the room fall upon us. I stood next to Neeraj when a nurse reported, “You have a son!” and he lost all color in his face. We cheered as he took his firstborn into his arms. I hugged the new grandmother and congratulated every aunt and uncle, all the while thinking, I Can’t Believe We’re Here.

• Holding books my husband wrote in our second language, patting him on the back, slack-jawed, saying I Can’t Believe We’re Here and You really did this!

  

  Baptisms

• My oldest daughter was baptized in a small creek outside the National Park after being denied the ritual inside. Under the cloak of towering trees, we dipped our toes in frigid waters, instantly swarmed by leeches. “Honey, it’s OK if you don’t want to do it today,” I assured her. She said, “No, Mom. I’m ready.” I wrapped her in a pink towel and removed the blood-suckers we found on her feet. We sang I Have Decided to Follow Jesus with the gathered believers. I mouthed the words but the song in my heart was I Can’t Believe We’re Here.

• I washed my daughter’s hair in a chilly creek in a village surrounded by mountains. An elderly woman, hunched over from many years of hard work, collected a bucketful of tiny crabs found hiding under rocks. The younger kids followed her trying to spot one before she did. My second language didn’t match her first so we just smiled at each other. As she waded away and I rinsed shampoo out of dark curls, my daughter said, I Can’t Believe We’re Here.

• My in-laws and my husband’s aunt and uncle were here for my son’s baptism in the pool we built on the camp property. We hollered for him and four new converts. Two drastically different worlds collided in one beautiful, celebratory I Can’t Believe We’re Here moment.

  

Betrayal

• We faced a scary time when a disgruntled person sought to end our ministry and do any underhanded thing to get our visa revoked. We bathed the issue in prayer and aimed for Biblical peace with this person. We lost many hours of sleep and asked God a million questions in various shades of doubt. When the man didn’t get what he wanted and the intensity of the situation fizzled out, we heaved huge sighs of relief and I Can’t Believe We’re (still) Here.

A Thousand Little Moments

Just walking the neighborhood or riding around the city, many times I think, I Can’t Believe We’re Here. Sometimes, it’s because something strikes me as odd or unusual. Sometimes, it’s because we’ve seen God do a great thing or get us through a hard thing. And sometimes, it’s because I can’t believe how normal all of this is to me now after (nearly) 10 years of doing life here.

I want to hear from you:

• Tell me some of your I Can’t Believe We’re Here moments!

On that note, I recommend:

1. Really Very Crunchy by Emily Morrow- This was a fun to listen to on audio. I am somewhere between Silky and Scrunchy on the Crunchy-Mom spectrum, but I found some insight and encouragement in Emily’s down-to-earth approach to health and wellness.

2. Through the Eyes of a Lion by Levi Lusko Grief will hand you many painful I Can’t Believe We’re Here moments. Levi found that facing those moments head on and leaning on the Lord’s grace in tremendous grief was the only way forward. He shares what the Lord taught him during a time of impossible tragedy, and I believe it will help you in your own difficult I Can’t Believe We’re Here moments. I hope we will be here for many more I Can’t Believe We’re Here moments.

1. These are fictional names for real people we love very much and wish to protect.