“Amy, I have a very important job for you. I need you to find me some coconut cake in Colorado Springs.”

I was talking to my sister in Colorado, who I’ll see in a year on furlough, about how I was having a craving. An Overseas Craving. If you’ve spent more than three minutes outside of your home culture and its familiar tastes, you know exactly what I’m talking about. So, Amy’s mission, if she so accepted, was to spend the next year checking at various bakeries and restaurants to see if any of them sell coconut cake so that, in a year, I’ll know where to go. Because, ya know … Craving!

Many times the Overseas Craving I have from here in Indonesia is food. A Chipotle burrito. A great barbecue turkey sandwich from Texas. This bread I fell in love with from the farmer’s market in Colorado Springs. (All three cravings which I now have. Sigh.)

Sometimes, it’s other things. Like hikes on a fall day. Or reading by a fireplace with snow falling outside the window. Or … rollercoasters. I get this one a lot, actually. It’ll be a sunny day here and I get this sudden urge to thrust myself down a 50-foot drop.

My other sister, Jennifer, indulged me on this one. On our first furlough, my baby safely at our temporary furlough home (my parents’ basement) with his gracious daddy, I convinced Jennifer to join me for a day at a Denver amusement park, playing like kids (and getting stomachaches like adults).

Really, most of the time my cravings are often about deeper things. Comfort. Freedom. Playing. Connection. Beauty. Rest.

That coconut cake I was craving? I’ve wanted it ever since I got back from a trip to Thailand for a homeschooling conference with my friend and teammate here. We had the best conversation in the cutest café … over the most delicious coconut cake.

My sister told me she found the perfect spot to enjoy a piece of coconut cake, tucked against Colorado’s Pikes Peak, the frosting (both the mountain’s and the cake’s) all thick and creamy. I can’t wait to go there with her one day.

In the meantime, I can find another way to get what I really need. Invite my friend here over for fresh coconut water from the coconuts in my own yard … and great conversation.