around-the-world-Mom

My dear 77-year-old mother (who just had a birthday) has arrived safely in Afghanistan. Not that Kabul is a tourist destination or that now that she's off the plane she's safe...

Mom and Dad left Kabul in 2005 after roughly 36 years of involvement in Afghanstian. Dad had just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and they had to leave immediately without goodbyes or closure. After Dad's death, I always knew that Mom would need to go back, but that doesn't make it any easier to see her go to the world's hottest spot! But this is the time to go. Brad's family will be moving to North Dakota next year because it's just too dangerous and restrictive for a family to live in Kabul. For example, their teenage boys can never go anywhere alone, they have to take different routes to school each day (to avoid being targets), they have very little electricity, etc. etc. Brad will continue his business of alternate energy (hydro, wind & solar) - by traveling back and forth between the States and Afghanistan.

So this is probably the last opportunity for Mom to visit Kabul, stay with family and assist with a women's project there.

I suppose a world-gallivanting mother is not so unusual when you consider that her mother, Viola Wiebe, got knocked over by a giraffe on safari at the age of 90 while visiting her children in Kenya...

Never-the-less, I would appreciate your prayers for Mom and Brad's family as they spend the last few months in Kabul.