Living overseas and being a TCK (third culture kid) Eric, like his siblings, gets to experience life in ways that would be unimaginable in the west. Some of these experiences are difficult and make their hearts, even at a such a young age, hold a lot of sadness. Saying goodbye to friends year after year is very difficult. Always feeling different is also a struggle for our kids. Some of the situations they are put in are uncomfortable for them. Eric's class was able to go to a school for the handicapped and share a day with them. I use the word share because it is exactly what they did. They shared time from one of their days to eat lunch together, play games, and hang out. In Shenyang I regularly took the kids to a foster home to play. Many of the kids there had cerebral palsy and Eric was always uncomfortable and didn't want to go. At the end of our time in Shenayang I felt that he had not learned much and maybe it would just always be a bad memory for him. I was so surprised and happy when his teacher told me how when his class went to this school, his classmates were very shy and uncomfortable, but Eric went up and said hi and then was the first volunteer to play the games. She said that after that the ice was broken and the whole class participated. What a blessing to hear. My prayer is that it is these experiences that shape my kids and that as they learn to walk through the difficult times they will come out the other side stronger and more alive than ever before.
