The end.

We are home.  The planes, airports, schedules, 30 hours of traveling... it's over!  Our kiddos were absolutely incredible - they slept lots on the flights & they were troopers!  Strangest immediate thing for me getting back into the US was waiting at the airport in New Jersey & being able to fill up the kids' water bottles with water from a drinking fountain.  It felt so wrong and so comforting at the same time.  No more "worm egg water" as we called it :)

Our final days at Kibogora were bittersweet - honestly more sad than we had expected to feel.  We left a box of clothes, scrubs, shoes, etc... there so we can begin planning our next adventure back :)

I know that I didn't write as much as I usually do this time around - it was partly because I was busier during the days & dropped into bed exhausted at night.  It was also partly because I ran out of "interesting" things to share.  Somewhere in the midst of the adventure, life simply became life.  I stopped taking my camera along everywhere we went, stopped trying to document each activity, and ended up enjoying each moment, for the moment.  We met so many people with their own stories - amazing stories.  Many special friends.  And we are thankful.  So so thankful.

In thinking about how to answer the guaranteed question, "how was your trip?"  Joel & I both feel that the best part of the trip was watching & experiencing God answer our prayers in ways we didn't expect, answer prayers we didn't think about praying, and living in the blessings that we couldn't have imagined or dreamed up.  Anyone can do this.  It's not as difficult as lots of people think.  We are just a simple family from a small town in America.  Yes, there's poverty in Rwanda - tons of it - more than you can imagine.  Yes, there's bugs, geckos, dirt & filth, dangerous drinking water & a new language.  And there's also plenty of pain & heartbreak - lots of kids who have fathers that abandon the family, domestic violence, blocked dreams due to financial hardship....  much like our inner-cities & many young families here.

My favorite blessing... before we left in June, I prayed for God to send me a friend in Rwanda.  I imagined our trip very lonely for me - much like 4 years ago.  So I asked my big God, my father, who cares more about me than the flowers in the field or the birds in the air - I asked Him to send me a friend.  After the first week or so, He did!  And Josiane spent every day with us - she has a giggly personality, she plays with my kids like a child herself, she would sit & talk with me for hours - telling me her life story, asking questions about America, sharing culture, teaching me new words & traditions... she reminded me so much of my dear, precious friend back home.  I cried when we said good-bye last week.  She giggled so she wouldn't cry.  She called me Mommy.  She told Joel & I that we are her Mommy & Daddy.  Her family.  She said we showed her the love of a family & treated her like a daughter.  Her past is stained with memories of the opposite of family love.   She told us to greet our families back home, even though they don't know her, she wanted us to greet all of them - all of you.  She blesses God for this summer with us.  We bless God for this summer with her.  Sometimes it's easy to love.  Always - I am surprised by God's answers to prayer.