Departure Date

Plane tickets have been bought.  June 28, 2018, is our departure date.  Wow.  I've bought tickets coming and going "home" for over 9 years.  This is the first time I wept after hitting the pay button.

Going "home"/going "back" seems right.  However, it's packed with so much emotion it often leaks out of my eyes in the form of slow, salty tears and drips to my shirt and while bringing a reflective smile to my face.  I love my home - here.  I love my community - here.  I love my friends - here.  I love what we've carved out for ourselves and what God has brought in and out of our lives:

• Sunday afternoon walks through the city
• Sleepy cafe's that let you sit for hours
• Crowded public transportation filled with others who do not make eye contact
• Lugging a granny cart to the grocery store every other day
• Speaking German with a funny American accent
• Taking a bath in the winter because it's the only way to warm up
• Buying cut flowers on a regular basis because they are cheap
• Making espresso every day
• Wearing the same pair of boots every day in the winter 
• Wearing the same comfortable shoes every day in the Spring
• Kissing cheeks twice as a normal form of greeting
• Eating insanely thin pizza with ham and corn
• Grabbing coffee with parents from all over the world who send their kids to the same school my girls attend
• Traveling to other countries for volleyball tournaments
• Not speaking dialect because high German is all I know
• Eating the best sausage on the planet while standing outside the Wurstel Hut