Originally shared in my newsletter on October 7, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n
When we left Ukraine four and a half years ago, everything was chaotic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was so much to do and so many people who needed help. Phone calls, driving, raising funds, evacuations. And four and a half years later, the needs haven\u2019t gone away. If anything, they have only grown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m also a visionary. I naturally see what could happen next and want to move toward it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So I kept moving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our family resettled in Budapest. Our kids grew. We built a life. From the outside, and often from the inside, it was easy to think, We\u2019re doing okay. We\u2019re moving forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But lately I\u2019ve been slowing down and listening more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And I\u2019m realizing how much has been going on inside my children that I didn\u2019t know was there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of what I\u2019m hearing is painful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recently, in a conversation with one of my boys, I realized how little fun it feels like we\u2019ve had together lately. He\u2019s naturally fun-loving, and something about hearing that stopped me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I found myself grieving. What has childhood felt like for him through all of this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There have been other conversations where I\u2019ve had to face ways I\u2019ve gotten things wrong. Some of those things won\u2019t be corrected by one good conversation. They will take time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s one of the harder parts of slowing down and listening. Sometimes you hear things you would rather not hear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But I\u2019d rather know what\u2019s actually going on inside my children than keep moving forward assuming we\u2019re all okay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We went through the same four and a half years as a family, but we didn\u2019t necessarily experience the same four and a half years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think this can be especially easy to miss in families whose lives cross countries and cultures. We may share the same move, the same country, the same ministry or work, the same losses and opportunities, and yet experience them very differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If I could go back, I think I would slow down more. For my kids. For my wife. And for myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m also having to ask myself a harder question: How much of my rushing was about the very real urgency around me, and how much came from something inside me that felt like I couldn\u2019t stop?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
People need me. My family needs me. The people we\u2019re serving need me. My team needs me. What happens if I slow down? Will something fall apart? Will I have done enough?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So you keep going. Keep helping. Keep carrying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the difficult thing is, the needs really are real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We found ourselves in the middle of a war where people we love were losing homes, being displaced, suffering, and dying. There were people who genuinely needed help. There still are. This wasn\u2019t a season when I could simply sit back and do nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe that\u2019s part of why slowing down has been so difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But I\u2019m realizing there is a difference between being faithful to what God has given me to do, within what I can realistically carry and influence, and living as though I can\u2019t stop because too much depends on me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And in responding to the enormous needs around me, I don\u2019t want to miss the people closest to me. I don\u2019t want doing something deeply important to cause me to neglect something else deeply important: being present as a husband and a father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So I\u2019m learning to ask more and listen more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s been difficult for you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What are you hoping for?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What do you miss?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s important to you right now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What do you need from me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t have to give advice, make sure everybody\u2019s okay, or get everyone on the same page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe being on the same page isn\u2019t as important as really hearing the page each person is on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And strangely, hearing our different experiences seems to be bringing us closer together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s also helping me understand myself. And as I slow down, I think I\u2019m hearing God differently too, including through my wife and children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Life after displacement gives you plenty of reasons to keep moving. So does life between countries and cultures. Often the next transition begins before everyone in the family has had a chance to make sense of the last one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But I\u2019m learning that sometimes we need to slow down in order to move forward. If we don\u2019t understand where we\u2019ve come from and where we are now, we may carry things with us that eventually slow us down anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe one of the best things we can do for our children is listen to them. And perhaps, as we listen, we can help them slow down enough to listen to themselves, make sense of what they\u2019ve lived through, and choose a path forward that is life-giving and true to who they are becoming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe slowing down isn\u2019t keeping us from moving forward. Maybe it\u2019s part of how we move forward well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is it costing you, and those you love, not to slow down?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If something comes to mind, leave a comment below. I\u2019d love to hear about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
George<\/p>\n\n\n\n
P.S. I\u2019ve been thinking more about families whose lives have crossed countries and cultures: missionary families, expat families, humanitarian and NGO families, and others who have lived through significant cross-cultural transitions. I\u2019m especially interested in what happens when a family slows down enough to make sense of those experiences together rather than simply moving on to whatever comes next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If this is part of your family\u2019s story, I\u2019d especially like to hear what resonates with you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Originally shared in my newsletter on October 7, 2026. When we left Ukraine four and a half years ago, everything was chaotic. There was so much to do and so many people who needed help. Phone calls, driving, raising funds, evacuations. And four and a half years later, the needs haven\u2019t gone away. If anything,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections-newsletters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifedreamscoach.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifedreamscoach.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifedreamscoach.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifedreamscoach.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifedreamscoach.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3623"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifedreamscoach.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3624,"href":"https:\/\/lifedreamscoach.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3623\/revisions\/3624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifedreamscoach.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifedreamscoach.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifedreamscoach.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}