Coming Home

This is the most exciting post that I have ever written. Well, maybe not exciting for you, but definitely exciting for me! My parents are coming home and my family will all be together again in just a few short days. Shawn is the only one who will be missing from the clan (physically) but I am sure we will talk to him on Skype and talk about him as if he were home! :)

Some of you know that my parents left in December to go to Jerusalem where my dad was working for BYU and their study abroad program. Initially my two brothers, Derek and Daniel went on the program also. Then, in June Heather went over to be a student. So, I have felt like my family has been fragmented to say the least.

A special thanks to all of you who have let me cry on your shoulder, been understanding of my parents being so far away or put up with my ups and downs through these last months. My thanks cannot be fully expressed. I have had good and bad times with them gone and through it all I have had such great friends who have stood by me. Also, my mom and dad, while they have been thousands of miles away have been as "present" as they could be -- even if it meant I woke up at 5 AM to talk to them on the computer, or that I called them late at night in the middle of a nervous breakdown.

I can hardly wait to see my dad's smile and those little crinkles that come by his eyes -- in fact, I was watching BYU TV just yesterday (cheesy I know) just because he was on and I wanted to hear his laugh. I am sure that he will turn on his favorite music and sing along while he asks us if we have missed hearing his beautiful voice. He will be so glad to have his relax-the-back chair and won't even care when the grandkids climb on him. He will call me his little mess, and I won't even care!

I can already feel my mom hugging me (mostly you feel bones when you hug my mom, but that is okay too) and telling me that she loves me. I can see the happiness in her face as she will proudly tell us all about the treasures that she has brought home for us. She will assure us that it is okay that the garden didn't grow like normal "some years are like that", she will say. Not only is my mom the world's most optimistic person, but my mom lives to serve, and I hope that someday I can be just like her. Everything she does is to help someone else.

So, as of 3:00 on Tuesday when my open house at school is over, you can bet that I will be going straight home to see the people I love. I am sure that there will be lots of happy tears, laughing, stories and the talking won't ever stop. I have so much to say and I can hardly wait. Only 48 hours and they will stepping off of a plane, and a few more after that I will truly be home!

I never thought I could feel home-sick so close to home, but I have learned that home isn't so much a place as it is the people who are there, and the people I love most will be at 650 South Mohawk Avenue sooner than later, so for a time, that will be home, and then. . . . . . who knows!