America, the Beautiful

I haven’t posted in 3 months… Sheesh. The thought of writing about our time in the States has been invoking major procrastination in me. Huge. Major. Procrastination. I hope somebody still reads our updates… I wouldn’t be surprised if all of you had given up on me.

Oh... and we took like no pictures. Hauled the camera bag all over (and almost lost it...) and didn't even take more than a handful of pictures. Shameful.

Being back in the States was good. For our souls. There’s nothing like being in a foreign country for an extended period of time and then returning to America. You move from being in a place where the faces, words, customs, sights are unfamiliar (even if you have lived with them for months and months) to a place where you feel absolutely comfortable. Sure, Americans are diverse, parts of the country are different, but there is an underlying sense of familiarity. We love living in Germany for the time being and traveling all over Europe, but we will always be Americans through and through, always feel the most at home in America. We know that God has truly blessed us with this opportunity coming at just the right time and we are ever grateful. But we will probably be kissing the ground when we eventually move back stateside.

Six weeks went by both quickly and slowly. I stayed with my parents after I flew in on July 28^th. Train-hopping and overseas-flying by myself had me nervous. I might have cried a few times in the days leading up to it. And, just as Nathan had reassured me, it wasn’t that bad. It helped that I had done most of it with Nathan before, so nothing was completely unfamiliar. I actually ended up sitting in First Class on the train even though my ticket was for 2^nd or 3^rd. The ticket guy turned out to be gracious, and even though he told me I was in the wrong spot (because Germans will always tell you when you are doing something incorrectly), said I didn’t have to move this time. I was so relieved. Trying to drag my huge suitcase, the camera bag, and my overflowing purse through the train while trying to find my designated seat was just too much. I got into Dallas that night and Dad picked me up. We drove to San Antonio the next day after meeting Sarah for breakfast at Taco Cabana. Delicious.

Nathan left Germany on August 2^nd and flew to Florida for a month of training. We barely had any kind of communication and that made this TDY anything but easy. I stayed busy with my family though. Matt came down for a week and during that time, he, Mom, Dad and I served at Leadership Summit. I love love love serving at Leadership Summit. I worked the sign-in table and we got to hear a great group of speakers, including Michelle Rhee, Seth Godin, and Steven Furtick.

We also celebrated Allison’s 17^th birthday

and had a Harry Potter night, complete with homemade Butterbeer : )

I was able to spend 4 days in Shreveport and 2 in Houston seeing friends. Driving into Shreveport made me tear up, taking me by surprise. I had to give my mom a call to stop the tears from turning into a full on cry. Seeing my girlfriends and everyone I used to work with (especially Herb, love him!) was wonderful. Getting to catch up with Sarah and Lisa (and see cute little Brooklyn) really made my heart swell. All three of us have been through a lot while together and apart and I am so grateful to still count them as good friends. All three of us had our cameras but we didn't take one single picture the whole weekend.

Nathan and I also shopped a bit. I had saved up my spending money for a few months, so I was able to get quite a few things I had been wanting, including a second pair of boots. Love them!

A few weeks into Nathan’s training, he messaged me that he was shipping me a surprise. I love surprises from him! He told me that he thought I would say that it was cute and, for whatever reason, I thought it was a shirt. The package arrived at my parents’ house while I was in Shreveport and I was so anxious to open it once I got home. But Nathan had I asked I wait to open it until we could Skype together. We had scheduled to chat the day after I returned from Shreveport, but we continuously had to reschedule due to Nathan’s utter lack of Internet connection. So frustrating. When we finally were able to Skype and I opened the package, I was shocked to find a brand new MacBook Air! A shirt. My goodness, do I underestimate Nathan sometimes… Needless to say, I l.o.v.e it. And Nathan was right on in guessing I would think it was cute. I believe the first words out of my mouth were “It’s so cute!”

After Nathan was done with training in Florida (which he hated), we were able to spend a week with both sides of our family. Nathan’s best friend Sean and his wife Susann also came down while we were in San Antonio, so Nathan was able to spend time with Sean over the weekend. We traveled to Midland with Nathan’s family to see Matt’s movie premiere. We enjoyed finally getting to see the movie. It was really well done and intriguing. We reveled in the time we were able to spend with everyone.

Another thing we reveled in? Eating our favorite American foods. Oh. so. good. But not quite as miraculous as I had been expecting. I seriously thought the heavens would part and a choir would sing the first time I ate Chick-fil-A (which happened to be in the airport in Philadelphia on the way over from Germany). But that did not happen. Are you shocked? Probably not. But I sure was. While it was delicious, it felt like I hadn’t eaten those golden nuggets and waffle fries in maybe a few weeks, not 8 months. Same with Papa John’s, Lytle Land & Cattle, Taco Cabana, Little Italy, and Chester’s.

It was hard to leave our families and our homeland. We were both nervous that we might sink into some sort of depression upon our return to Heidelberg, even though we were ecstatic thinking about living in our apartment again. But good news! It was great to come back here. Things have settled into being home to us. We have a life here that we love. It’s hard to understand how there is room in the tiny part of your heart that holds onto silly things, like where you call home and such, for multiple places you want to hold onto. My life so far has included homes in San Antonio, Abilene, Oxford, Shreveport, and now Heidelberg. And small pieces of my heart are in each one. I am grateful that we still have reason to consistently visit San Antonio and Abilene. But who knows how many more places we will call home or how much we will be able to return to those places? Anyways, the point is we loved being in America, but we equally loved coming back. What a blessing that was for us!