Packing Light & Parenting Big
lots of stuff
on our recent travels to china to adopt, we were gone for a total of 15 days. we left a family of three and returned a family of four and with the length and number of us travelling, there was a lot of stuff that we needed to pack. first and most importantly, we needed our adoption documents and passports. those were priority and took up a good section of my carry on. probably the next priority were clothing items, shoes, and toiletries. then, came some items for the girls. and of course when you travel with kids, you have to pack some stuff for them to do, especially with the flight to and from china (12 hours there, 14 hours on the return) we needed some entertainment! and last, but well used, snacks! we knew that airline food, hotel food, and sometimes the food in china would not be what we wanted, so we packed some food and comforts from home. this was the result…
too many bags!!!
but when we were leaving, i thought i needed all that stuff. it seemed so important and crucial that i take everything i had packed. after 15 days, 7 flights, 7 airports, 2 train stations, a seriously cramped taxi ride and one more child…i really rethought my packing strategy. and i began thinking about it for family life. am i going to approach the rest of this life packing too many bags? cramming activities into every day, buying more and more stuff for me and our girls, stuffing every crevice of time with something to do instead of being, just being family?
parenting big
in this season of vacation and summer, maybe we need to all make sure that instead of packing big, we are packing light on what fills our time and devote the leftover space to travelling light and parenting big. and by parenting big, i define that as shifting your time and energy and emotion to your family times together rather than external stuff and the trappings of activities and things in this world. living simply, travelling light, parenting BIG! making your kids the priority, not the stuff.
i definitely don’t have this figured out and solved, but i am re-packing for our family and praying and asking God to help me keep family the priority, and not the stuff.
what is crowding the “suitcases” you’ve packed for your family? is there a piece of luggage you just need to leave at home?
