Back Home

It is a bit weird to title the post "back home" since I call two places home. One is my parents' house which I keep returning to for various amounts of time after graduating high school. But, I am sure they don't mind, as long as I bring the grandkids with me! :) The second is my home here. Yes, after 15 months here in Eastern Europe, it feels a bit like home. It is where Canaan has spent 1/3 of his life and where Max was born.
Ok, enough nostalgia.
We arrived back in Kharkov on Friday afternoon, Lubbock time, Friday evening, Ukraine time. We were met by Rob, David and Brandon. (Brandon and Katie- our future teammates- are visiting our team this month.) They had planned to have two taxis also meet us to bring us home, but because of several miscommunications, there was none. Oops. We finally got one to show up after an hour. We chatted for a bit with Liv and Katie (and the boys too) and then went to bed. It is always nice to lay out flat after being on airplanes for a long time. Our travel time home was about 25 hours, of which we slept less than 5 hours. Well, Max slept more. The trip home was good. Canaan had a mini-meltdown on our second to last flight when he woke up from an hour sleep crying. Then Max started crying. The poor people around us. Max settled down quickly, but it took Canaan about 30 minutes or more to calm down. Poor guy. He was just completely and utterly exhausted. We bribed him with everything, to which he finally said, "I don't want anything!" We even threatened. I think he just wanted to cry.
We made it back with everything except one suitcase and our stroller. Dougle is walking in the door right now with it. Yeah. Actually, they called to tell us it had arrived at the airport and Dougle confirmed, "I will come out there and pick it up?" They just laughed at him and said, "You think we would bring it to your house?" Silly us. Look what that month in the U.S. did to us!
Well, I am not going to attempt to recount everything now. My goal is to make more frequent, but shorter posts with pictures. Unfortunately, this one isn't coming with a picture. Soon... But Canaan is waking up and Max is fussy and Dougle is in the kitchen looking for something for dinner.
In case you were wondering, it starts getting light outside around 4am. I could look out the window and see everything. Max and I were up to view it. He was still on Lubbock time...thinking it was only 8pm. Canaan is adjusting well and has slept the majority of the last two nights. God is good. He even gave us energy to stay awake in church today! That way Brandon wouldn't think we were slacker teammates sleeping through his sermon. (Yes, if you visit, you might just be asked to preach!)
It was more than wonderful seeing those of you we got to see. We missed not seeing some of you or not spending more time with you. It was really a whirlwind trip. We love you all. Keep us in your prayers. And we will pray for you too. Send us a note sometime to let us know about specific requests. Just because we are overseas doesn't mean we don't love you and care! Blessings.
Lucy