Dedication Dilemma

Important occasions happen in our life all the time ... births, weddings, deaths ... and everything in between ... the circle of life. One of the sacrifices of living overseas, away from friends and family is that you miss so many of these events in the lives of your nearest and dearest. Just a couple of weeks ago I missed a good friends wedding. Due to the fact that we live in different countries (neither being our home country of England!) I haven't even met her husband yet! That was one of several weddings in the last 12 months I've missed and I've stopped counting the number of babies that I won't get to meet until they're walking and talking!

The same can be said for other people missing these important events in our lives too. We recently had a dilemma when we wanted to get our youngest little girl dedicated. While the grandparents probably weren't very impressed, we made the decision to have Naomi dedicated right here in Ohio, where she was born, rather than wait until the next time we're in the UK. Two of my good friends here are her godmothers, so they could be with us. We know with the nature of our work, we will live all over the world and so Naomi would be unlikely to live in the same country as her godmothers wherever they were from ... but as she is technically American, she will have the American influence from these two crazy women!

As both myself and my husband have different 'home' sending churches near our parents, there has always been the dilemma as to which church we should do things in from getting married to having our final commissioning service before we headed overseas. When Abigail was dedicated while we were still in the UK, we were living several hours from where our family live but just like this time round, we also felt it was important to have the service in the church near where she was born. Last time most of the important people could make it, although not all, so we don't think we could have done it perfectly even then. We've found it's not always easy to please everyone ... especially when you're moving round the world every couple of years but it is important to feel at peace about the decisions you do make!


So far we haven't had any significant friends or family become seriously ill or die while we've been overseas so that part of the circle of life hasn't directly affected us being away from England. It will be inevitable at some point and I hope we have the wisdom to decide when to return home for the event and when it best to continue where we are ... obviously something that's too difficult to pontificate about until the time comes.