A Place to Settle

I think I've talked a little bit about this before, but one of the most frequent questions I get from people after returning to the States is, "How does it feel to be home?" I'm a bit uncomfortable with that term, since our home is in Nazareth, and it has been for the past two years. I wonder, is this a Texas thing? A friend of mine who moved up north TEN YEARS AGO says she still gets asked that question when she returns to the Lone Star State for a visit. Anyway, I got tired of correcting people, so now I just answer, "I'm happy to be around my family and old friends."

I refer to our term in the USA as my "temporary settling place" since we're planning on being back overseas next summer. And in a lot of ways, it's our home. We have a place to live, a car to drive, etc, so I'm very thankful for all these things. It's definitely taking a while to set up the place and get comfortable with a day-to-day routine, just like it would with any other move. I finally feel like we are settling after being stateside for almost two months. Part of it has to do with starting school, and part of it has to do with the fact that we are now in this house for the next several months. I've been furiously attacking the cobwebs and dust in this house, which hasn't been lived in for quite some time.

So, our time in Colorado was nice. My sis came to visit for a couple of weeks, and I really enjoyed spending time with her. My mother-in-law and her husband, as always, made us feel at home at their place, and our family got to go to a debriefing conference in the Springs after a five year term overseas. It was really great talking with other workers like ourselves and getting some idea of what the next 10 months in the States might look like.

Hubby and I got to go on vacation to Las Vegas, JUST the two of us, a couple of weeks ago. It was welcome, and probably long overdue. We hadn't been gone on our own since having kids over six years ago (with the exception of a couple of short, 24-hour excursions).

So now, it's on to normalcy, or some form thereof. Pregnancy is going great; I'm just very tired by the end of the day. I had my ultrasound and it looks like we will be welcoming another little girl into our family sometime around the New Year. Official due date is January 3, but you know how these things go :-)