It is so wonderful to be home again. I’m sitting in my house enjoying the heated floors with my puppy curled up in my lap. Life doesn’t get much sweeter than this. Well, it would be sweeter if I was completely unpacked, but still.
We had an absolutely wonderful time in the US. We discovered that although the conveniences are nice, the only thing we really need in the US is our family and friends. We had such a lovely time with the people we love. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting and getting to know my 15 month old niece Erin - and working my way up her popularity ladder. And, as usual, we had a great time with my mom, brother Tom, and sister-in-law Lisa, and my Dad. We also got to spend an unusual amount of time with Franklin’s sister Lisa and her daughter Lauren, who is 5 (almost 6) and thinks Franklin and I are the coolest people on the planet. As always, Franklin’s parents spoiled us rotten. We were also able to visit with my grandparents in New Orleans, and with almost all of Franklin’s extended family who came to Columbia to celebrate Christmas with us.
In addition to spending time visiting our family, we also spent some time renewing friendships at Coresco and St. Giles. There are so many wonderful people in our lives. And we were able to spend time with 2 friends we met in Israel - Dave from the young adults group and Sharon from the Embassy - it was weird to see them state-side.
We also had a chance to speak to a 2 churches and 2 schools while we were there. We aren’t particularly drawn to this type of thing, but we even managed to enjoy our speaking engagements. We especially loved the questions we got from the school children (such as “do you sleep in a bed?”, and “if people weigh more than rocks, how come we float in the Dead Sea, and rocks sink?”).
The most unexpected thing that happened to us during our visit is that Franklin developed and got rid of a hernia. Yep, he completely blew a tube. The doctor recommended that he go ahead and get it operated on, so we did. We were unprepared for how serious the surgery was - he has a 4 inch incision in his abdomen! But we’re glad he’s all fixed up, and he’s recovering nicely. It’s hard to keep him from picking stuff up, but he’s learning to live with his temporary restrictions.
Well, I’m off to take a shower and then to the office, where, in anticipation of my return, every server we have has gone offline. Yippee hooray.