The little things

In the past 24 hours, I:
1. drank water out of the tap
2. walked on carpet
3. ate at Chick-Fil-A
4. traveled on a road without a SINGLE pothole, folks!
5. passed about 20x the number of stoplights in Kampala
6. chose between, literally, about 30 different varieties of butter or margarine (good grief!)
7. saw a person wearing braces on their teeth
8. watched my kids wolf down breakfast cereal to their hearts' content
9. drank coffee from a Keurig
10. sat on a comfortable couch

11. whipped up a casserole with cream-of-something soups (okay, not the healthiest...but oh-so-easy!)

12. taught two of my kids to use a water fountain; got a fun little squeal!

13. went jogging on a sidewalk 

14. watched my kids play on a public playground
15. took a hot shower!

16. recycled something

17. picked out my own hair products, and shipped them nowhere

18. watched the kids drink up unlimited wi-fi

19. listened to my kids chant, "Christmas came early this year! We went to Chick-fil-A AND Target AND the grocery store with Grandma!"
20. threw my arms around the neck of my relatives

It's good to be back.

 

:)

Control

Went on my third indoor Ugandan bat hunt tonight. As in, in my house. Not as fun as you might think, but it can just be disconcerting to have it fly through the living room, you know? I confess to shrieking once. ....Twice. The guard, a.k.a. my minion, laughed good-naturedly. Maybe I'm just one of those hyper-controlling types who has to keep tabs on every single breathing mammal in her house.

I think I'm comfortable with that.

No place like...

It's official.

We have TICKETS!

Folks, we are coming home.

(Well, to one of them, anyway. Home is so complicated a concept now--!)

 

Sadly, John won’t be in until November. So I’m coming in with the kids on my own mid-October.

 

Let's see. That's takeoff at 4 AM...nineteen hours to Houston, via Istanbul. Good grief. Talk about kicking off furlough with a bang. (I've heard that 90% of missionaries could use a vacation when they get home from furlough. Let's just leave that statistic be for now, shall we?)

 

The kids are beside themselves about the plane ride. Last spring (U.S. spring, that is; it is always spring here!), J. asked if we could get on a plane, watch movies all day, and then come back to our orange house in Uganda. I told him that was a pretty expensive movie day. But, ta-da! Kid, it's a wish come true--with Grandma and Grandpa on the other end!

 

Because the reality is, each of us is so excited to see our families and friends and church. It has been so long. I get to meet my niece for the very first time, and we can hardly believe we will be hugging so many dear people in person.

 

Not to mention a few creature comforts, and a land where everything takes about three steps less! When my dad was here, he remarked that in talking to people about America, it sounded as mysterious and baffling as John's Revelation! Sure enough, one of my co-op students who has always lived in Uganda had the most interesting story to tell everyone about his grandparents who live in the UK: "They have this box. And you open it, and put in dirty dishes, and then close the box. Then you press a button. And when you open the box, the dishes are CLEAN!" Indeed!

 

So, hitting at least four U.S. states when all is said and done, we are returning to the land of grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles...and Chik-fil-A, and dishwashers. We'll hang around until the new Year, with John joining us around November 2. I'm thankful our kids are already talking about people and things they'll miss here, and that with relationships and ministry here, we'll be ready to return.

 

But for now, there's no place like home.