Time Flies...

For those of you who have been wondering where my posts have been since I returned home, they have been living in my heart.  

See, it is hard to know what to write about when you get home.  At first, everything is completely overwhelming and you cannot begin to process the differences between living on a ship in the middle of one of the poorest areas of the world to this beautiful, wealthy place I call home.  Then, slowly, the world seems to make sense again.  You fall into normal routines and Africa feels a million miles away.  Yet, at times, when you least expect it, a random memory will strike you, your heart catches, and you realize, Africa is not far away.  It has made a tiny room in my heart that will never be filled by another.

Now as the cool fall fingers are touching my house, I am realizing how much time has gone by since I was last in Africa doing that special, meaningful, fulfilling work.  Africa has changed me.  I am still processing the changes and how to express them in my daily life.  I can see Africa in little changes, like the new magnets on my fridge or my beach blanket.  I can also see how Africa gave me a new focus for my career, to stop being management and go back to working with patients.  It also helped clarify my passion for working with mothers and babies; I am still working on ways to express that in my daily life.  My time away taught me not to stress about the little things and to be content and thankful in every season.  

So while I miss being in Africa and on the ship, I have had an amazing summer.  God has been so good to me.  He has given me a family who didn't think I was crazy when I started crying because the dinner bill one night could have fed a West African family for months.  Friends who were perfectly content to look at my 4,000 pictures and sit quietly while I told them stories.  I went on a ton trips and basically did laps around the Mid-East Coast galavanting on one adventure after another.  I am learning to find balance and take care of myself.  I am learning how to outrageously love someone.  I am learning, and loving, and living.  And I am so very full of joy.  

I don't know what this blog will be like now that I am home.  The stories here don't seem to quite compare.  I will probably update it some if you would like.  But know for now, my life is outrageously blessed.