It’s good to touch the green, green grass of home, even if it was a foot tall when we got here.
Our housesitters left a month ago, so the yard was like a jungle when we arrived, but it was still good to be home. We are thankful our home is still standing and provides us a place to put all our STUFF – all four hundred pounds of it we schlepped home from Norway.
People were praying for us, we could tell, as the trip home was quick and easy and none of us have had jetlag. We arrived at bedtime Saturday and slept right on schedule and have been fine ever since. One of the many small miracles we’ve experienced the last few days.
Malik, a friend of Kaleb’s from church, came home with us Sunday and helped get the yard in order. It’s not quite the park-like setting I like, but we are getting there. Our bags are unpacked and we’re nearly settled.
God is merciful and all my angst about being lonely when we got home has been for naught. As we drove into our driveway Saturday night, just as I opened the car door, our phone started ringing. It was our neighbor, wanting to be the first one to welcome us back. Sunday morning at church we could barely make it to our seats for all the hugs we encountered, folks smiling and welcoming us home. People were so glad to see us, they said, and they so missed Kory’s “Hallelujahs.” We went to Costco after church and ran into one person after another who stopped us and welcomed us home. Two people I didn’t even know stopped to tell me how much they enjoyed reading my blog. Friends of friends, they said, that followed our life abroad with great interest. (I was wondering who the 93 people a day are that were reading the blog.) It is good to be home.
Kaleb wanted to be back in America in time to celebrate our country’s independence, so we watched fireworks, went to the local parade, and had friends over for a BBQ on the 4th. We grilled some salmon and chicken and ate baked potatoes, corn on the cob and watermelon - the taste of an American summer. The zipline and homemade stilts kept all the “boys” well entertained. It was old fashioned kind of fun.
We are most thankful for the sunshine over the Skagit Valley. Three months of rain in Norway is okay when the bulk of our time was spent visiting friends and family, but now that we are home, being outside in the sunshine has been a blessing. Yesterday Kory washed all our cars, Kaleb dangled from the Skychair hanging on the zipline and read book after book. I watered flowerpots and pulled weeds. Life is almost back to normal. Our home is our refuge and our little piece of heaven. But as we’ve discovered, our home is also wherever we plant ourselves. Here or there, near or far, we feel at home wherever God leads. Praise God, we have a home.
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