Home

The children and I walked through the front door of our home last night around 8:30.  Of course it's good to be back, but I've been struck by a torrent of feelings that make this homecoming different. My feet are now in two different worlds.  My body is in Kentucky but my mind keeps jumping back to what will be our home in Albania and considers what that will look like.  I feel like someone just gave me a new set of glasses and all familiar things suddenly look different.

Like this morning.  While the surroundings of my 'things' make this feel like home, knowing that it's only home for a few more months is indescribable (not bad, just ... bewildering?).  All of a sudden I notice things that I took for granted before.  Things like wall-to-wall carpeting, rooms that are uniformly heated and not all closed off individually by doors, that I can walk around my house in bare feet, that I know how to find the perfect water temperature in the shower easily and I can bend over without hitting my head on a glass door or tile wall. I've been to Albania nearly a dozen times and noticed these differences, but it's it's not the same now.  I can step out my door (here) breathe deeply of clean country air, but I don't catch the scent of frying onions that seem to hang in the air around the Tirana pallati we will call home.  I look at the walls and wonder, "Will that photo fill a space on another wall, thousands of miles away?"

Switching gears...
I feel like I owe a follow up to yesterday's post and petitions for prayers.  If you lifted us up, thank you!  God was faithful and while each minute of the day was full, everything we needed to accomplish was tackled.

We were pleased to make a quick trip from our hotel to the Cincinnati Airport to return the rental van and pick up our 5 pieces of checked luggage.  Mom and Dad were even able to purchase a few pieces of gently used luggage from an airline's unclaimed luggage department.  After a lunch of soup and salad (oh how I'm going to miss 1000 Island dressing), we dropped off Mom, Dad, and the kids and found a men's store nearby where Nathan bought a sport coat, pants and shoes for his trip to New Jersey today.  There was a buy-one-get-one-free sale which took the sting off the sticker price a little bit.  Now Nathan has 2 new outfits for our time of support raising!  They promised to have the pants hemmed in time for Nathan's departure later in the day.

As for the missing wallet... We checked online and were relieved not to see any unusual activity in our accounts, so we figured we must have it -- somewhere. After emptying 4 large bags of belongings, checking pants pockets and whatnot, Nathan remembered to check one last place:  a little zipper pocket on the front of our L L Bean duffles that we only use for stashing zip ties.  The last remaining bag contained the missing wallet.  We were so thankful that God protected it from theft throughout the various airports that bag traveled!  Nathan guesses that upon arrival in Albania he put the wallet in that pocket where it wouldn't get misplaced in the apartment or forgotten in a drawer.

We enjoyed a good meeting with Ellie's physician at Cincinnati Children's.  Thank you for your prayers for that.  I will try to share about some of that soon.  I'm really grateful that her doctor was very patient to answer our questions and explain things in a manner we could understand.  I was also grateful to learn that now that Ellie's "in", she's a patient as long as she has the need and that we can keep this physician and clinical team throughout Ellie's childhood.  It looks like regular evaluations (every couple of years or so) will be a part of Ellie's development so we can keep an eye on her needs as they wax and wane.

Before we knew it, it was dinner time and we needed to get on the road before our bodies succumbed to the lack of rest accumulated over the previous 48 hours.  We said goodbye to Mom and a very sick Dad.  Yesterday his cold took a bad turn and he spent much of the day in bed with a fever.  It was concerning and a reminder how such travels take a toll on Dad and why he feels that trips back and forth to Albania may be fewer and further between.  He wasn't well enough to travel to Illinois today and will try tomorrow.  Mom got on a plane and flew to Florida for a missions conference at a church which is a strong supporter of the Albania ministry..

Day 1 of 4 without Daddy has gone relatively well.  The laundry is now all done and most of our e-mail correspondence is also caught up on.  Tomorrow it will be time to get back to the books for Ellie!