Home sweet home

Marc doing his best Hamlet impression. Yeah.

Marc and the kids at the restoration of the Globe Theatre. Really, really a fun tour. If you're in London, I highly recommend it.

The kids riding the double decker bus in London. They had fun just riding around. That's pretty cheap entertainment!

We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord's dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful. James 5:11

It's been a while! In fact, it's been a couple of weeks, which is pretty rare for me overseas. In America, I just don't have as much that's interesting to talk about, but I rarely go this long overseas. We were in London for John's birthday (and a visa trip) last weekend, and of course, the rigors of language school pretty much keep me busy during the week. I woke up early (what? you're kidding!), so I'm pretty much done with my morning routine, even though it's only 7 a.m. Oh, well...some day I'll sleep, right? Right?!?!?!

As someone who has done this overseas thing before, there are signs that I know to look for--both signs of something going wrong and of something going right. I am attuned to my kids (Marc is actually pretty happy anywhere), and I've been watching carefully to see how they're doing. Let's face it--if my kids are okay, I'm okay, and if I'm okay, then everybody in the house is okay. :) You know it's true!! So I keep an eye on the kids to see how they're doing in the midst of our transition to Austria.

And so, as a person watching for those signs, you can imagine my delight with a discussion we had on the train going from Horsham back into London last weekend. It was right after we'd had a great visit with some friends, and we were all remarking on how much fun we'd had just visiting and eating together. We were headed back to Vienna the next morning, and we were talking about being ready to get back to normal life. "Vacation is fun," Hannah said, "but I'm ready to be home in Vienna." John agreed. So did Marc. So did I. And for the first time since we've been overseas, all of us called the same city 'home.'

We have lived in some places we have loved. Beautiful cities full of people we adore. But never before have our hearts been in the same place. There is a settledness to calling a place home, a contentedness. It doesn't mean we're happy all the time. It doesn't mean that everything here is perfect. (If you find that place, let me know.) It doesn't mean we don't desperately miss Sarah Beth. (Today is the first birthday of her life that I haven't spent with her. Yep. That's a toughy for this Momma.) But it means that we aren't wondering about what's next. This life is transitory at best. People are going and coming in and out of our lives all the time. There is no way to predict where we will be in 5 years or 10 years. But at this moment, for this season, we are all here in Vienna. And it's a huge blessing. Huge. And it's made sweeter by the hard times, by the times when one person's heart was in Moscow and another's was in Middleburg, when one person loved Prague, and another longed for Moscow. Home...it's a sweet word.

Hear my heart when I say this--not loving the place you are isn't a tragedy. Don't walk away thinking that I've said the worst problem on earth is not feeling at home. There are real problems in the world...people we love with heartbreaking illnesses, marriages dying, wars and rumors of wars, friends in combat...those are real problems. And we sometimes come across real problems in our own lives. It's good to have perspective and know what is a problem and what isn't. But as I grow in my Christian life, as I learn to see things differently, I am convicted of the need to be grateful. Grateful that we get to live this incredible life, even when I miss my girl on her birthday. Grateful for a lovely city and a language that is learnable, even when I don't completely understand how to do my homework. Grateful for friends all around the world, even when I might be feeling a little lonely. Grateful for sunshine streaming through my apartment windows, grateful for public transportation, grateful for people God has given me to love. Grateful. Grateful. Grateful.

I haven't always been grateful. I spent much of my first term focused on what was difficult. On what seemed unfair to me. On how hard this life is. But I also spent much of my first term being stretched and pulled into a completely different person by the God whose love compels me to this life in the first place. For a long time, I was thankful because I knew I was supposed to be. It was a rule, and I'm a rule-follower. :) But now, in this season of my life, the gratefulness, the absolute thankfulness for the life I am allowed to live...it is unavoidable. I don't have to be thankful because the Bible says so (and that's not a bad reason, by the way), but because I can't help but be grateful for the blessings of this life. And one of those blessings that is most pleasurable to me at this moment is to have a place that is home. It's sweet. I don't mind telling you. It's really, really sweet.

Well, the sunshine is beckoning, and I am heading out for a walk along the river in a few minutes. Honestly, it's just beautiful outside. Wherever you are in the world, I pray you are choosing gratefulness, and that you are going to skype with a birthday girl later today, too. Blessings to you and yours!

His,
Kellye