Finally Home! - June 9, 2008

What a GREAT week we have had! It has been soooooo fun to see everyone again. We are very blessed. It was beautiful to see our family and friends at the airport-they gave us a such a warm welcome. So many things have changed and yet some things are exactly the same. And how we feel about those we love is definitely the same. That doesn’t change over time or distance.
I am LOVING being back in our house again. It is absolutely perfect. My parents have done such an amazing job on it. Being here is like therapy for the soul. Once I get used to the time change and get caught up on my sleep, my battery will get charged to overflowing. The kids are doing o.k. with the time difference-still getting up way too early, but we are working on that. It is so fun to watch them rediscover things that they forgot about. We went to Wal-Mart the other day and they were thrilled at the littlest things. Cauliflower, cantaloupe, peaches, goldfish crackers, pretzels, lemonade, donuts…Cale of course doesn’t remember any of it so for him it was like seeing it for the first time.
Our first few days were cold, temperature wise. I had to dig through our boxes downstairs looking for warm clothes. We have also had a bunch of tornado watches and warnings (which is interesting to observe because the girls pack up a bag of their favorite things and go downstairs until it is over-cute!), we have had severe thunderstorm warnings and flash flood warnings…the storms here haven’t been close to the torrential downpours of Indonesia, but it has been fun to be a part of. I love all these changes in weather, especially the cold.
So, one week ago today we had just arrived. Since then we have had various people over to reconnect, we took the kids to their old school to see friends, had lunch dates, refreshing family time, 5 doctor’s appointments, 1 dentist appointment, Sunday morning church, a special service for Garth’s ordination, a birthday party for Wyatt, a horrible bout of stomach flu that ravaged its way through our house and into our extended family, multiple trips to the hospital to visit my Grandpa, and given out about a 1001 hugs.
Our Indonesian presentation that was supposed to be last night has been rescheduled. I will let you all know of that date in case you are interested.
As I type the kids are all sitting at the table eating cereal. They are loving all of the cereal selections and real milk instead of powdered. I think they each eat like 3 or 4 bowls a day-especially Peanut Butter Cap’n Crunch and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I am loving wheat bread and salad. I have missed that. Garth has been enjoying real potatoes and Ballpark hot dogs.
Well, thank you all for praying us safely home. It is a treat to be here!
Talk to you soon,

Rachel