We head to the airport in Doha Qatar early in the morning. Already the air is heavy with heat. Humidity is high and my husband's glasses fog up as soon as he steps outside.
The majority of Qatar is not Qataris but those in Qatar for work or travel. It feels like a fascinating and sometimes depressing convergence of worlds. We talk to guest workers and find out some of the stories behind their work. Most go home only once every two years. Their longing for home and family does not have the luxury of tears and emotional paralysis; instead it is submerged into working many hours a day and sending as much money as they can back to those families.
I look out the window to barren desert and palm trees, those trees that are so symbolic to me of home. I've had no time to process, and suddenly we are almost to our new home.
We go through a special transit line and are quickly through security.
Though early, the airport is busy with travelers, some bright and ready, others bleary-eyed and travel worn. Airports are the bridges and we travelers are the bridge builders, connecting worlds by traversing through them, sometimes settling and other times moving on.
We are in the second leg of our journey to Kurdistan, the place we will lay our heads for awhile.
There has been so much to do in the past weeks - packing up a Life is not for the faint hearted. We have experienced many grace-filled moments, always when we most needed them. There has not been time for feeling and emoting; instead, it's been doing and acting.
But at the airport as I hugged my younger daughter, the one of our five who has always lived bed close, the feelings found a place of release in tears. We hugged tight, not wanting to let go. There will be so many miles between us and I am not ready. No matter how many fancy communication tools we have, nothing takes the place of face to face conversation and wrap around hugs.
And now, because of modern air travel I am already thousands of miles away.
This is not a forced displacement, yet it still comes with a cost, and that cost has names and faces. It's those names and faces that made us think carefully about the move; those names and faces that keep us praying and looking for creative ways to communicate.
We grab a coffee at the airport and wait to board. It is surreal. For many years I have longed to return to the Middle East, and I shake my head in disbelief. I get to do this. I get to live in Iraq, specifically Kurdistan. Despite the tiredness, the emotional impact, the fact that those I love most are far away, I am filled with gratitude.
