Home for Christmas

I am so blessed. Sometimes it takes leaving for a long time to make you realize what you have at home. For example: Mountains. A family with big hearts. An amazing church that loves Jesus and His people. Friends who make you want to wake up each day with a smile on your face. A valley full of familiarity and sentimentality. A dog who will patiently lie in your lap as you write a blog. Thank you Jesus!

Snowshoeing on Christmas Day.

Last-minute hesitations

It's hard to go back after being gone so long. I'm afraid that it will seem as if nothing has changed and yet everything will have changed. Or that it will feel like everything is different, when in reality everything is just as I left it. Did I really spend these 6 months traveling, learning, living only to come full circle and end up right where I began? I hope I have grown from who I was then. I hope I have progressed. If not, what was the point?

Maybe it's that I want to come back transformed and new while everyone at home remains just as they were. But if I have changed, I can count on the fact that they have two.

It shall be a sharp awakening when people who once were assemble like parts to create something beautiful no longer fit together as one into the mold.

Is it I who has disturbed the sweet unity? Is it them, did they change?

No, it is the inevitable outcome of us all changing.

These are the exaggerated and over-dramatic fears of an 18 year-old who has just lived through her longest period of time away from to date.

Ça va aller, je promets. Je survivrai.

I'm Coming Home To You (The Final Week)

"After six years, I was at last returning to my homeland; and ever since I had decided on this departure, my impatience had never ceased to grow; it was as if i were in the grip of a fever. For all those years of exile, one's native land- whatever one does, and despite the generosity or the hospitality one finds in other countries- will always be something more than just a patch of earth: it is the Earth itself! It is one's family and one's friends, it is a familiar horizon and ways of life which the heart within one may well retain, but which it never willingly exposes to reality, never willingly surrenders over and over again to reality. At the end of this voyage, my great homeland was beckoning to me."
- Camara Laye

I stumbled upon this in a book called "A Dream of Africa." The first page pulled me immediately: I feel the exact same way as the speaker!! Except for one minor difference. He had been away for 6 years. Me, a meager 6 months. But 6 months feels like forever, let me tell you.

Here's to sweet homecoming and redeeming reunions with the ones we love!

Cheers.

Things I will always be thankful for

1. A God who sees, loves, and saves me.

http://this-means-love.tumblr.com/post/13743717094/the-words-to-this-hymn-are-a-treasure

2. Having a significant somewhere, something, and someone to go home to. I love my family, my friends, my house, my puppy, my church, and my hometown.

3. There is always hope. Some days I feel it more than others. But there is always hope to cling to, even if it's only that of Heaven and future glory with Christ.

4. Music.

I love to create it, listen to it, and think and talk about it.

A new album gives my life a fresh perspective.

Playing music with friend fills my spirit with joy.

Singing songs to the Lord renews my strength.

5. For the adventures I have thus far enjoyed. While 6 months away from home seems like an eternity, I will never forget the quirky, crazy, and enlightening experiences I have encountered.

"There's a lot that I don't know, there's a lot that I'm still learning."

6. The Christmas season. It means so much more to me now that I will be returning after being so far away for so long. Coming home is special. Coming home for Christmas is pure bliss.

7. And finally, I'm thankful for the opportunity to learn and love each day. If I have failed today, I have faith that tomorrow I may wake up renewed and ready to try again.