The 10-20-30 Meme

Does anyone know what "Meme" is? Leave a comment, if you do.

Anyways, I wasn't exactly tagged for this, but Jess of Making Home said I could do this, so I will. I get to tell you what I was doing ten, twenty, and thirty years ago. So here goes... I'll start with the oldest and work my way forward in time.

30 years ago...
Wow... That number looms so large! I was probably kicking my mother and making her generally uncomfortable. She was about 2 months from her (my?) due date, and we already discussed how she dealt with the discomforts of pregnancy...

20 years ago...
Let's see, 1987, I was not quite 10. My parents had been divorced for a good 7 years or so, and I lived with my younger brother, my mom (who was handicapped) and Frank, her short, somewhat balding but funloving boyfriend. Well, he might not have lived there full time that year, but he was around quite a bit. We lived in the house my grandparents bought in 1949. I would have been in fourth grade. As always, I hated school. I also "enjoyed" the gifted/talented education program, but it wasn't fun like Jess's. One day per week (Tuesday, it was), all the G/T kids from the city were bussed to a single school (which actually was the school for handicapped and retarded kids.. hm..). I excelled academically, but had no real friends at school. I was too poor for some, too smart for others, and probably just generally weird. In my heart I loved the Lord like my dad (who was a pastor, but lived 10 hours away and I only saw during summer) and stepmom, but didn't feel like I could express it around my mom or grandmother (yes, the notorious Gi-gi), or the neighbor lady who kindly took my brother and I to a Unitarian church each Sunday. I loved reading, and spending time with our friends who lived across town. I am still close to their entire family to this day.

10 years ago...
1997... I was a junior at a private Christian university, after only a year. I'd spent the last year or so of high school going to college and got a 'head start', if you will. I was studying elementary education, and I remember one professor asking the class what they planned to do with their education. It being a Christian university, about half the class desired to teach at Christian schools, 'who were in need of well-educated teachers.' The other half wanted to 'be a witness in the public school system'. I said, "I want to homeschool my kids." Ha! I'm sure that wasn't a common goal at most $23,000/year (at that time) instutitions. I was crying out to God on a daily basis for ... something. I felt as though I were hollering into an echo chamber. My prayer was usually, "God, here I am, this is the direction I'm going because I don't see you leading anywhere else.. Okay God? Until you change my direction, I guess I'll do this, okay? ... Can you hear me?..." My heart wasn't in college, or education or career. It just wanted a home and family. I disguised that desire with an outward show of "wanting to be a missionary." God hadn't really opened many doors, but I thought that would be a more 'acceptable' desire. Besides, I could have my own mud hut...

Like Jess, I'll just put it out there that if you want, "consider yourself tagged," and do this yourself. Leave a comment so I can read it, if you do!

Post script: God did give me that major change in direction, about 7 months later... Thank you, Lord!