Home Again

It was kind a long travel day, but still ... isn't it amazing that I could wake up in El Paso, go to church with Jesse's family, be taken to the airport at 12:45 in the afternoon and actually walk back in my own little house, 1600 miles away on the same day?!

I packed my camera away this morning before church and didn't take one single picture today. I was just out of energy to photograph anything at all.

The kids and I made pancakes for breakfast this morning. We played some card games and read some stories and then went to church together. Jesse had to be there early this morning, so the children and I went later with Diana and Kaitlynn.

All of the grade-school children are dismissed after the worship singing and go to various classes. I decided that since I was being driven directly to the airport after church, I would just have my own private little class with Emma, Chris and Matthew on the picnic tables outside in front of the church. Emma brought her "Jesus Storybook Bible" along and I had each one of the kids pick out a favorite that we could read and talk about. Emma picked out the story of Jesus choosing his 12 disciples. We talked about how lots of these friends were just poor fishermen who left everything to follow Jesus. We also talked about what happened to them after Jesus died, rose again, and went to heaven. How they went everywhere telling the wonderful story of forgiveness and redemption and how many of them actually died for their faith.

Christopher wanted to hear the story of Jonah, so we read it and talked about it for awhile. We got talking about how difficult it is to love people who are mean to us. Something in our discussion provoked Chris and he abruptly announced he needed to go and pray! So he left our picnic table, went behind a tree, knelt down and prayed for a little bit. He never did tell me what it was about and I didn't want to pry into his personal business!

Matthew wanted to hear the story of how David became king, so we read how Samuel went to the house of Jesse and met all of the sons, but none of them was the right one until the youngest was sent for ... and he was anointed king. Matthew likes that story because for a long time, HE was the youngest. But we talked about how God looks at our hearts, not at how strong or handsome or smart we are.

After church, we drove to the airport and I got dropped off after much kissing and hugging. No one cried, for which I was thankful! I think we were all too tired to cry today! And our colds have made our noses so nasty that crying would only make that misery 10x worse.

It was a nice time, a really wonderful visit. Jesse is looking to be out of the Army in early June 2013 and Diana will be finished with her nursing program by then too. The plan is for them to move back to Grand Rapids at that time. So ... perhaps only two more Texas visits for me and then no more!