I Can’t Hear You Chapter 1-part 2

            With a bit of shock I found myself down again in the same old rut.  And I was worried. Anxiety courses through my DNA, a blue blood descendant from a long gene pool of professional worriers. This time I was fretting because I knew we were not going back to the States for a year of recovery.  With the kids in Slovak Junior and Senior High school, our family agreed we could not take them out of the educational system for a year.  We changed our routine. Instead of four years in Slovakia and one in the US, we decided to return to the States every other summer.

            The preceding summer in America, we managed to squeeze into eight weeks most of what we normally did in fifty-two. We left Colorado feeling like we aged seven years.  I almost checked the children for gray hair. It took us six months just to recover from the whirlwind of activity.

            Now a year later, we had just finished a wonderful summer at home in Slovakia, complete with a dream family vacation, extra time with friends and some exciting ministry opportunities.  The school break was crowned with a once in a lifetime visit from my brother and his family.  I was rested, content and happy.

            Then the fall came. Being from Colorado I am used to sunshine. We say in Colorado,  “If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.”  You do not have to wait for the sun to come out tomorrow, it will come out today. Fall was different here, very different. Here in Slovakia I say, “If you don’t like the weather, tough.” Being so far north we have a lot less sun in the winter, some days or weeks, which seem like months and years, we don’t have any blue sky at all.  To say the gray weather was difficult for me would be a huge understatement of the obvious.  I read a book on Seasonal Affective Disorder and asked others how they coped.  Personal adjustments helped, like ensuring I had enough light in my workspace.  A friend gave me a light box to compensate for the lower amount of light in the winter.  My daughter, Megan, was born in October, so I had the perfect excuse to learn to like the fall. I began to search for things to appreciate; the beautiful large trees providing a plethora of color, the hills outside my windows glowed and there was a birthday party; autumns were becoming enjoyable.