Always at Home

Our children are TCKs―Third Culture Kids―which is a fancy way to say that they are growing up in a different culture than the one their parents grew up in. Their worldview is being formed through the lens of a "third" culture that blends the world they come from with the world they live in now.

Growing up in a third culture does things to you―mostly good things, we hope. It teaches you how big―and how small―the world really is. It teaches you to appreciate people, places, and ideas that are different from your own. And sometimes it causes you to think in ways you weren't expecting.

One thing we've seen in our own little TCKs is that they think of "home" much differently than either of their parents ever would have. It makes sense, really, that a little girl who has called seven different houses or apartments "home" during her seven years of life might be quicker to feel at home wherever she is than someone who has spent their entire life at one address. But, I confess that even I have been surprised at how little it takes for someplace to become "home" for our kids.

When we talk about going to visit family and friends in the states, where do they say we're going? Home. When we're in the states, and talk about our host country overseas, what do they call it? Home. When we're vacationing at our favorite beach hotel, and they want to go back to the room, where do they ask to go? Home. When we spent a few days last fall staying with friends in Mississippi, and the kids wanted to go back to that house, what did they call it? Home. When we visited Kenya last year for the first time ever, and had been at our retreat center only 24 hours, where did Lee Anna ask to go when she wanted to head back to the room? You guessed it. Home.

While it may be simply an issue of semantics, I have to believe something more is going on here. Our kids have learned that home is more than an address, more than bricks and mortar, more than a place to store all your stuff. Home is where the people you love are, and home is where you are.

And so we thought that Always at Home would be an appropriate name for our family blog―one where we'll share the joys and experiences of life in our family. Whether we're traveling in Europe, having a "normal" school day in our apartment in the desert, visiting with family in Florida, or anywhere in between, you can know that wherever we are, we are, in a sense, at home. And we hope you'll feel at home here, too.