Home!

This is Megan writing from Boise! We're home! A favorite moment during traveling was when we stepped off of the plane in Chicago, walked across the tar mack, and were greeted by the guards who check passports. There was people arriving from all different countries, but when we handed him our American passports, he said, "Welcome home!" Truly, I have never been so glad to be standing on American soil. To be able to read the signs! To be able to speak English to everyone! To use the fantastic bathrooms in Chicago O'hare! (Really, be thankful for your toilet and your high-quality plumbing! The nice toilet paper too!)

Never have Rader and I said "Praise the Lord" so many times with such genuine meaning as in the past two weeks. And we said it a LOT yesterday...especially as the wheels of our plane touched down in Boise. We were delirious on that flight...totally out of it! Minutes started to feel like hours, and we were talking in a mix of English and Russian. (Rader did really well picking up phrases in Russian. Megan has a total of about ten basic phrases: yes, no, please, thank you, good morning, hello, good-bye, chocolate, and PRAISE THE LORD!)

Thankful! It's really incomprehensible how blessed we are. Thankful for two kids tucked into a warm bed. (We had to wake them up and hug them even though it was almost 1:00 in the morning.) Thankful for a shower with endless hot water! Thankful for my bed in a new way! If you possess a padded mattress with a mattress pad and fitted sheet, you are blessed, my friend! I have more fruit and vegetables in my house right now than I ate in the whole two weeks I was there. The baby carrots which used to seem like a boring staple, I am now savoring like a fine delicacy! I feel like royalty! (Thank you, Judy, for a clean house and a refrigerator stocked with groceries!)

I read something while I was away and it really struck me.

An excerpt from a book by Tim Hansel,

"A young Jewish girl, surrounded by the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp, had the grace and composure to write the following poem. Her words have seared themselves into my mind because I recognize how often I lack the gratitude and maturity she must have had.

From tomorrow on

I shall be sad

From tomorrow on--

not today.

Today I will be glad,

and every day

no matter how bitter it may be

I shall say

From tomorrow on I shall be sad

not today.

I get slightly embarrassed when I read this poem...for though we live in the wealthiest nation in the world, in an age of overwhelming opportunity, we have written a less grateful adaptation of the above poem which goes like this:

From tomorrow on I shall be happy,

From tomorrow on.

Not today.

And every day, no matter how good things may be,

I shall say

from tomorrow on I'll be happy

not today."

Jim preached on 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 while we were in Russia.

"Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

Thankful that in Him, we can rejoice always...trusting in His perfect plans even in the midst of the bitterness of life.

I have faces in my mind. Faces that I won't forget. Faces of orphans that make my eyes brim with tears. I have a new desire to "pray without ceasing." It's the only thing I can do now that I am here, and they are there. I pray for the churches to grow, for the believers who serve by faithfully visiting the orphanages, for the pastors who teach, for the beautiful people I met who are called to live and serve in Russia.

And of course, I can give thanks in everything! Be glad for the abundant resources I am blessed with! Be thankful that I can share with others! Be thankful for our partnership with the Russian churches! Be thankful that God has a plan for my life.

This is good perspective on a day when I'm feeling a bit shaky from jet lag. A bit overwhelmed with "normal life." I feel like maybe I could just hide away in my house for a few days and hug my kids close. And maybe it's okay to take this time to just be quiet. To pray. To give thanks. To figure out how to be normal.

I am especially thankful for the many people who made it possible for us to go! Thankful for our two sets of wonderful grandparents who took awesome care of our kids. Hunter and Hadley are chatting a mile a minute telling us what they did with Grandma, Grandpa, Mimi, and Poppa. I'm thankful for Miss Lisa who came and walked Oliver every day! I'm thankful for Auntie who invited our kids over to her house repeatedly. (They were telling me all about how they got to have breakfast at your house in their pajamas!) I'm thankful for the friends who drove my kids to Awana. I'm thankful for the many who prayed and who are still praying! I'm thankful for notes of encouragement at just the right time. I am realizing that God works through the simple things. That ordinary moments can be extraordinary through His power.

My heart is changed.