Reggie needs a home

While we are gone to Fiji for one year, our beloved dog Reggie needs a home. Can you (or someone you know) give give him a home?

Reggie is 3 years old, VERY well mannered and trained, and is great with kids and other animals. He is incredibly sweet and lovable - he makes friends wherever he goes.

He is a large dog (Australian Shephard and Golden Retriever Mix) and weighs about 70 lbs. He does shed,

so needs brushed often. Despite his size, he is extremely gentle and easy to have around.

While we are looking to place Reggie for just one year, we realize that one year is a long time and that is is likely that Reggie's new family will become attached, and vice versa. We are open to discussing a temporary placement, or a more permanent arrangement - whichever suits his and his new famiy's needs best.

It is so important to us that he is placed with a loving family (one with other dogs would be great!) while we are gone. PLEASE pass this along to your friends to help us get the word out. We can be reached via email at jjcahill@earthlink.net or 317-223-9378. Thank you!

Better to post late than never!

Our friend Rob came to visit a couple weeks ago. How great it was to see him again and spend some time hanging out, American style. He spent 6 weeks or so with us on Vorovoro, and finished up his 7 months of traveling with a visit to the States before heading back to England. After so many weeks living together in Fiji, sitting cross-legged and barefoot on the ground, how strange it was at first to sit on couches together, chatting and typing away on laptops!

Here's an interesting story of synchronicity from when he was here:

Rob lost his passport on the Megabus ride down here from Chicago. A few days later he received a call from his parents in England - someone from Cincinnati had found it and was holding it for him - he just needed to call and arrange to pick it up or have it mailed. Rob calls, leaves a message for Chuck Ciolino, the holder of the passport. No return call, hours pass then Rob calls again. Still no return call and he and Jimmy are getting antsy. They decide to go ahead and hit the road to Cinci, trusting that they will find him when they get there.

They get to Cinci - still no call from Chuck. They stop for dinner, tell the bartender their story, and she looks at the phone number and tells them which direction they should head. They set off in the direction, but then they see a Bass Pro Shop and decide to stop. As soon as they walk in the door, Rob's phone rings - it's Chuck! They jot down directions and turn right around and hit the road again. A few minutes later Jimmy notices a huge billboard that leaves him speechless: It says "CALL CHUCK CIOLINO!" Evidently, he is a real estate agent in the area. If they had not stopped at the Bass Pro Shop, the phone call would have came just as they were passing the billboard.

The story ends happily with Rob and Jimmy trekking back to Indy, passport in hand, grateful and amazed by the powers of the Universe. These kinds of things happen to us so often that we never feel alone - we know that we are part of something intricate and magnificent. Sometimes they are just fun reminders, like this one, other times they are BIG road markers that show us the way or affirm for us that we are headed in the right direction in our lives. How does synchronicity work magic in your life?

Sweet Kristina

A few days after we arrived home from Fiji, my new great-niece Kristina Maria came to stay a couple days with us. It had been so long since we've had a baby in the house and we all soaked up her sweet babyness. Well, Lucas really isn't a baby person, but the rest of us just couldn't get enough of her. Tiny little feet, soft, soft skin, sweet baby smells!

I think she is coming to stay a night with us this weekend - can't wait for more baby snuggles.

Almost home now for 2 weeks. Our sleep schedules have finally worked themselves out. We are fairly well adjusted and moving along with our plans and "to do" list to get ready for the move to Fiji. We've taken a bit of a break for a couple of days though, cuz our good friend Rob has come for a visit. Rob spent 6 weeks with us on Vorovoro, and has been traveling around the world for the past 7 months. His visit to the States is the last bit of his travels before he returns home to England. It's been great seeing him and hearing his voice again - we've missed the English lilt we had become familiar with back on Vorovoro (many of the staff and travelers there were from various places within the UK). Rob just wants to chill out a bit before he flies back home to work, so we are planning on taking it easy the next few days, hanging out, maybe cooking out on the grill (if we can fight the swarms of Irvington mosquitoes!!!!). We are joining up with our homeschool friends for a geode hunting adventure in Yellowwood State Forest tomorrow. Wish us luck!

New Look

Wasn't thrilled with look of the last blog I threw together in a hurry before we left, so I decided to re-do it. I kinda like it - what do you think??

Also, gotta give some thanks where it is due - thank you, Anna NB, for leaving the quote above on my porch to be the first thing I read upon returning home. It articulates so much that is going on in our lives that I haven't been able to find words for. You are just so magosa (awesome!!!).

And the cool pic above is from my friends Jenny's camera - she always seemed to have hers out at the right time. There are definite advantages to having a smaller camera. Thanks, Jen!

Home Sweet Home

We are home – jetlagged and culture shocked, but HOME! It’s been hard for the kids to adjust their sleeping schedules in the 6 days we’ve been back and it is taking its toll on us all. They are tired, but cannot fall asleep before midnight (some nights we have even seen 4 am!). We’ve tried waking them early so they are sleepy early, but they sleep for a few hours then wake up and can’t go back to sleep. Fingers crossed that we all get a good night’s sleep SOON!

We arrived at the airport at 1 am on Friday, not expecting any friendly faces to be waiting to greet us, but were pleasantly surprised to find my sister-in-law Michelle waiting at the bottom of the escalator to take us home! It’s was so good to see a familiar face. When we arrived at our house, we found our porch full of signs and banners welcoming us home. It’s so nice to travel, but it is awesome to come home, too! Since then, the days have been a whirlwind of friends and fun – we’ve all had a quite a few opportunities to catch up with family and friends. Playdates, sleepovers, dinner dates, a cookout with some African drumming, and we even had my 11 week old great niece Kristina spend two nights with us!

It’s been an adventure adjusting to life in the States – cars driving on the RIGHT side of the road, grumpy people in the grocery store, water that flows from the tap and ice on demand! When we walked in to our house, Bethie exclaimed that it was like a mansion. The bure that we all shared in Fiji was the size of our dining room. The space and the amount of stuff filling up our space is quite bit overwhelming. We all came home with a different sense of what our needs truly are. It’s been nice seeing the kids have less attachment to things – as we get settled into our home again, they are weeding through their things and getting rid of them, on their own. I’m feeling overwhelmed at having such a big space to keep clean and tidy – the bure was much easier, for sure! Fortunately, we are getting some help. Bethany developed some good habits in Fiji – since we’ve been home I’ve noticed she is MUCH tidier and cleans up after herself. She washes her dishes after her meals, tidies her room (without being asked!) and does things whenever she notices they need done, like feeding and watering the dog. Now if only her brothers would join her!

Now that we are home and nearly settled, we have some very BIG news to share with everyone. During our stay in Fiji, our family was asked to take on the job of leading the project this next year! Much sadness and excitement are mixed up in this decision, but so much synchronicity has been at play these past few months that we cannot deny the path that we are meant to take. Before we left for Fiji, we felt that we were being led there for a reason but were not sure what it was. We knew we were ready to make major changes in our life, to live intentionally, to find meaningful work that would fulfill us. The trip was meant to be time for us to experience another culture and disconnect a bit from our culture, to slow down, reconnect, and listen to our hearts. It was time for us to grow and heal together – the past few years have been rough on us all. When we were searching for a place to travel, this project came up in a web search and we knew instantly that it was perfect for us. Everything fell easily in place for our travels, and somewhere along the way it became clear that we were meant to go. That made it easy to let go of worry – we just followed the direction our hearts led us and we knew everything else would work out okay, even though Jimmy had left his job and we found ourselves for the first time ever with no income, no security. The trip did prove to do all the things for us that we needed. The time spent in a relaxed and community minded culture helped us redefine our perspectives of how we wish to be in our community and our relationships. Living out of our comfort zone and in a place where everyone and everything was different brought us closer together as a couple and as a family, and gave each of us opportunities to discover qualities and gifts within ourselves that we hadn’t seen before. It slowed us down, put things into perspective. We found a peace inside, a direct connection to something Divine. Old habits that kept us stagnant gave way for the birth of new ways of being that became more a part of us by the day. There are so many aspects of our experience that I don’t quite know how to articulate it, but in future blogs I will continue to try.

The same synchronicity/guidance that led us to Fiji continues to work in our lives now in such a way that we feel so lucky that our path is so clearly laid out for us. We learned shortly after arriving in Fiji that the Project Director and Tribe Manager positions were going to become open at the end of our stay. As the weeks went by, we could see how well we fit into these positions – the skills needed are all the things that Jimmy and I are naturally good at and enjoy. And it fulfilled all the things we have been wanting in a job, the only thing was that we weren’t expecting our perfect jobs to be across the world. So now the plan is that we are home for 6-8 weeks, then we are off to Fiji for 1 year. We have lots to accomplish in that short amount of time to be ready to leave, but we are trusting that it will all work out as easily as it has up to this point. Just taking it one day at a time.

Because we are leaving soon, our past few days of getting reacquainted with friends and family have been a bit bittersweet. We are thrilled at seeing all the people we love and value, but I don’t think any of us were prepared for the punch in the gut sadness that comes with sharing the news of our leaving again. Following this path is going to be hard, harder than I thought it would be. Again, just taking it one day at a time and taking every chance to share good times and laughs with the people we love so much.

I will be uploading more photos to Flickr later today. Lots of the huge 3^rd Anniversary Celebration of the project. Be sure to check it out – there are some photos of Jimmy dressed up in full Fijian celebration dress – draped from head to toe in Tapa cloth. A big part of the celebration was celebrating the new leadership for the next year as well, so he had an important role in the ceremony. It is exciting to us how having a family lead the project with change things in dynamic ways – the Fijian culture is very much a family oriented culture. They are very excited to have us join their family, as are we.

A few links you might want to check out:

A really cute and funny video that the current project director (and adopted big brother to Lucas and Ollie) put together about Oliver

The press release announcing our new positions

My blog for the Tribewanted website

Lucas' blog for the Tribewanted website

Almost time to come home...

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we are doing okay - just haven't been able to get to the internet for a while.  We have a few more days here, then we fly to Nadi for a couple days, then it's home.  We will be back in Indy early next Friday, Sept. 4.  

Life here is well - busy with lots of work and preparations for the 3rd year anniversary of the project.    Bittersweet - we are eager to come home and see all those whom we miss so much, but sad to leave the friends and culture we have come to love so much.  Sure to be an emotional parting, I'm sure.

Off for now.  Next update will be when we get to Nadi. Till then, much love to you...

Long time, no post!

Been a while since I had the chance to update.  Town trips are 3-4 short hours to do everything – email, blog update, upload photos, shop.  Hopefully some new photos are uploading as I write this.  Check Flickr!  http://www.flickr.com/photos/cahillfamilyphotos/

Our stay with Chuck, Susie and family was wonderful – seems like so long ago already.   We had some amazing talks - much to learn from each other.   Lots of talk about parenting – what works, what doesn’t.  Feels good to share some of what we have learned.  They have 3 adopted children, 2 they have had from infancy, one older daughter they have had only for 1 ½ years.  She was abandoned when she was an infant by her mother, and then abused terribly by the woman with whom she was abandoned – she lived there for years, until she ran away to live at the children’s home.  She lived there until Chuck and Susie brought her to live with them.   So many challenges come with integrating a child with no concept of security or family into an existing family structure – this is made even more challenging amidst  the hard work of getting a new farm off the ground.  Quality people they are - I admire the work they do in the world.  Their sustainable farm is impressive – they’ve only lived on the land a handful of months and have done so much.  They’ve built basic Fijian housing – outdoor kitchen, sleeping rooms.  Acres and acres of food growing in the ground, sheep grazing, chickens fattening – hoping the pictures from our time there will upload today.  Their intent is to one day have the farm open to widows and orphans as a home – a place to live and learn skills – a place to which they can always return.

I’ll let the pictures tell the story of the rest of our days these past few weeks.  Each day is so full – yet still flows with ease and joy – I truly love the way life integrates here.   We have grown as a family in ways I couldn’t have imagined before we came.    The kids are so comfortable here in their Fijian home and with their Fijian family.  This past week has been a week of firsts – all three kids have accepted invitations to go home and spend time in the home villages of some of our friends.  Bethie spent the night in Sala’s village on a neighboring island on Friday night, Lucas went home to Jone’s village on the mainland on Friday and stayed until Monday morning, and Oliver went home with Sala last night.  They had amazing experiences.  It has been such a privilege to watch them grow and mature this summer – they have really grown into their own.  They are so confident and capable.  It was quite strange being without kids this weekend – only Ollie stayed behind!  And when he was invited yesterday, he couldn’t pack his bag fast enough – he couldn’t wait to go to the village and play with all the children.   On Sunday, I went over to Sala’s village to attend church – amazing experience.  Most beautiful singing you will ever hear on this earth.  No pictures, but I do have some video to share when I get home.   Had an emotional talk with Sala's mother last night - she has 8 children and lost her 9 year old son, a twin, to leukemia about 3 years ago.   To hear her say that she is always looking for the one who is missing, always seeing her son when she looks upon his twin, to hear her describe her pain and tears when they learned what was making his sick, because the only end to leukemia here is death - breaks my heart wide open.  She shared with me her faith, her pain, her love for her children - she is an amazing, strong woman.  I learn so much from each person I have the privilege of knowing.  I am grateful.

Much love back home to each of you reading this.  About 3 more weeks to go – can’t wait to see my new niece, catch up with friends, give and receive lots of hugs!  XOXO!