almost done.

Our trip is almost over and seriously, it has been a long one. It feels like ages ago that Lauren dropped us off at the airport. This long trip home has been endearing and conflicting - making me feel heartache over missing family and displaced over not being in my real home now, at New Beginnings. I can pretend that Charlotte or the south is my "home", but it isn't anymore. I'll always feel at home with family - on my mom's porch, or at East Boulevard Starbucks with the girls, but I have a bed and a kitchen, friends, a biblestudy, a church, and even my own Starbucks back west to call my own. However - as our trip winds down, here are some of my favorite moments, just a few:
- getting off the plane to my mom, dad, Katie & Abel cheering for us at 1 am.
- seeing Elias get his first haircut by JB, he never knew how good he had it.
- watching my dad sing "you're so vain" to Glory while she peed her pants laughing.
- sitting at breakfast with Leigh & Gray, so proud of who they are and so blessed to know such an amazing married couple.
- watching my mom play "super-nonny", taking on three kids, four adult children, a sick husband, and a teenage daughter with grace and efficiency.
- being around Katie and Josh. Every minute with them. I don't think most couples have best friends like them - in that we haven't all been together for six months, and it was so great and so perfect and just right.
- seeing Glory hold Abel's hand, just because she wanted to.
- watching Nick and Elias in the ocean.
- walking with my mom, talking about the future. feeling safe telling her my dreams and wishes.
- missing Lauren & growing to appreciate her more.
- Elias finally eating chicken nuggets after much protesting.
- Katie when she turned weird that one night and kept walking around the condo with a blanket over her head like Mary.
- getting a tattoo, jumping up and down in katie and josh's car screaming "tattoo!tattoo! we're getting tattoos!" on the way there.
- hummus, wine, & the dieting that followed.
- cuddling with Nick and feeling at home with him anywhere in the world.
- having my first wedding anniversary where I was not pregnant and could enjoy a glass of wine, however hot from the southern sun.
- being at mere's wedding shower, basking in her sweet bridal glory.
- seeing my college friends and wanting, if just for a really skinny second, to go back to simple times with them - laughing and dancing and making a fool of myself.
- loving remembering those times, but loving my life more now.
- getting excited for the future. If my life before our move to Puyallup was that sweet and is this sweet now, I'm just ready for whatever He has in store. The pain, the joy, suffering and suprises - the earth is a hard place to be but he gifts us with so much while we're here.