For Smokey...

It's been one year today since we blew up our London lives and decided to give everything up (including the best cat ever) to travel and experience the world again. I’ve given up countless houses and cats over the years but these were finally my very own. There has been severe heartache, regret, soul-searching and sleepless nights. I didn’t know how heart breaking giving up my own home (finally and against our will) would be. For a TCK especially, it was devastating. Some days I’m still reeling from that...overcome by a deep sadness, and that’s okay. It’s more that we didn’t get to enjoy the finished article before putting it on the market that was, and still is, deeply painful. Our blood, sweat, tears and laughter are all over that flat. It was our home.

And yet, the world is my second home and I will always feel a sense of belonging to remote corners of this great planet. Which is where we find ourselves today. The Gili islands of Indonesia...I was first here 15 years ago with Ben and parts of my spirit are scattered all over this beautiful nation, full of smiling people. 

We worked bloody hard to save up for this trip, but as every TCK knows, you’re always sacrificing something. In many ways we are rich; we have traversed this planet to the point of exhaustion this past year. 20 countries, 42 flights, 67 beds. We have seen great things and felt flashes of true happiness. We have felt alive and wanted more of this free, bohemian lifestyle. But today of all days, it’s important to take stock of what we left behind. And shed a tear. For Smokey...

Goodbye Lorena

Last week I was devastated to learn of the passing of an incredibly beautiful, unique and precious soul and dear friend. She helped me invaluably with "Home Keeps Moving" and was one in a million. She was a free spirit. May you rest in peace Lorena. You are, and will forever be missed 

Her forward for my book:

Foreword by Lorena Smith 

"I grew up much like Heidi, hovering between several cultures, travelling often, struggling with faith and questions of identity, home, and belong- ing. My mother is Swedish, my Dad Sri Lankan, and my schooling was all over the place, partly at Hebron School in India, partly in Sweden, partly in the US. To complicate matters more, I married a TCK from Ecuador/El Salvador, with roots in California. We’ve lived everywhere from Romania to the UK to Connecticut. 

As our world grows smaller and smaller, the tribe that is TCK’s and ATCK’s grow larger and larger. And yet the questions still remain for most of us: Where do we belong? How do we fit in? In a world where people put cultural identity and national citizenship in the premier place of personal identity, where are we? 

As I read Heidi’s book, I was so struck by the way in which I identified and recognized myself in her descriptions and analysis of TCK’s. Her story, in some measure, is the story of every TCK, whether missionary kid, or army brat, or diplomat kid, or anyone else. 

If you are a TCK, you will recognize yourself and, as I did, breathe a sigh of relief that your experiences and feelings are, after all, universal. If you are a par- ent, please read this book so you can know what we are and will be going through. And if you are anyone else, those who love us, our friends or coworkers, please read it, because it expresses things we are often hard pressed to put into words. 

On the whole, the lives we live, the places we go, and the things we see, teach us that people are peo- ple everywhere. As you read this book, one of my dearest hopes is not only that you will understand this tribe we call TCK’s but that you will also decide to experience what we have—new cultures, new homes, and new people and discover our world. 

We will probably run into you somewhere along the way, in Lebanon, Latvia, or London. Come say hello."  💔 

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 Painting: "The Dreamer" by Alain J. PicardH


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