Originally posted in September, this post marks the single biggest event of our year…and one of the biggest in our life together really.

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He put on an ironed shirt this morning, nice slacks, belt, and shoes. He kissed me goodbye and said, “Have a good day” just like he did yesterday and everyday last week and nearly every morning for the last 15 years of our marriage.

But, today was different. There was a spring in his step and an extra spark in his kiss because today was not like yesterday or the days before. Yesterday, he quit.

When he told his boss he was leaving, his boss wanted to play the game, give him a counter offer, encourage him to stay. When Mark told him he wasn’t headed over to a competitor but leaving the financial industry entirely, I think he left him a bit dumbfounded.

Leaving the industry. The one he’s worked in for 18 years.

Mark explained the work, his role specifically, how he’s been called to it. He told him how he’s been raising support so that we could do this. We thought he’d think we were crazy. Instead, he told Mark he was jealous; Mark will be doing something his heart is full in. It’s what everyone wants deep down, above wealth, benefits, prestige and all that comes with all three of those. Everyone wants to do something they love; maybe life too often gets in the way.

Just like that, Mark left that conference room, and everything was different. We knew his days there were numbered, but we didn’t know that number until now. He had imagined what that conversation would be like, played it over in his head. Now, the imagined is simply history, a day that we’ll remember that marks when we put a stake in the ground and said, “This is where we are meant to go, and we’re going.”

He’ll end well over the next two weeks, still putting on an ironed shirt and slacks and kissing me goodbye each morning, making sure things that need to be covered are covered, putting closure on all he can. But, at the end of those two weeks, he’ll close up a cardboard box with the few personal affects that made a sterile desk and chair his workplace, and he’ll drive home one last time for us to start a whole new part of our lives, one He’s been preparing us for all along.

It’s been 6 weeks they’ve been there, away from home in a faraway land. Some of them were there last year, some even there the year before that. But, of the 14 teachers there, 4 are new on the scene.

The first few weeks may have been a little shocking. Afterall, things are very different there on the other side of the world, so so different. You don’t realize how much language you actually take in on any given day until all the language around you is incomprehensible. Our local organic farmers market on Saturday morning is trendy; their farmers markets on crowded streets are daily life. Our running out to grab a bite to eat is efficient; their meals out are centered around community and connection, reaching across each other, sharing dishes, sitting for hours as more and more dishes are brought out. Our healthy lifestyle means working out at the gym, cutting out fast food, and sanitizing everything; their healthy lifestyle is staying warm, having a full stomach, and drinking hot water while trash covers streets like confetti and dust collects on any thing that is still for 10 seconds. Our convenient is drive-thru windows and orderly school drop off traffic circles; their convenient is a 40-minute bus trip with only one transfer.

As one of only a few Westerners on a campus of up to 20,000, they sort of stand out. The honeymoon phase lasts a while and right about now reality sinks in. This is life, for a while at least. And, even with all the Modern Family episodes on discs and pumpkin scented candles brought as gifts, they cannot forget that they are pretty much the furthest away from home they could possibly be on this earth. But, they are there, fully there physically and otherwise, committed to the work they are doing, and following the One who called them there.

We traveled a lot early on, visiting each other on different campuses. But, when I got back here, I felt confirmation. I knew this was where I was supposed to be.

I feel the same way as that new teacher. I’m not there like they are there, but I could have said nearly the same thing. Life is different now, in many ways we haven’t even yet identified. But, we’re fully in it, committed to the call and following the caller. Just like K told me over a 4 oz. porcelain cup of hot water, we know this is just where we are supposed to be.

My China adventure isn’t over with my plane landing back on American soil; it’s just taking off.