Back in the U.S. of A.

I'm back home now, just posting some final photos online at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=83185&id=697459212&l=cc5d3d1810

I miss the kids terribly. Trying to get back into life here, which is intense since we have an upcoming move to Chicago. (For those who don't know, I am starting my Master of Divinity this fall at Meadville Lombard, where I was recently awarded a full-tuition scholarship.) The new adventure is amazing and I am so grateful for all of it, but planning a move back to a big city is starting to make me hyperventilate a bit. And of course, it's keeping my mind off of India, which is good and bad, I guess. No huge emotional breakdowns...yet. But like I said, I am missing the kids like crazy. It's hard to feel my way through it because nobody here knows the kids. To everyone here - even Matt - they're just little brown children in photos. The pictures can't convey their perfect personalities or the depth of love I feel for them. It's this really foreign world that has suddenly become very personal to me, and I think that's what makes this transition hard.

Hoping to start compiling my thoughts and journals into a book this week - I'm sure that will help me to process everything. In the meantime, I'm going to wait by the phone for the girls to call me from India. (I left them with my cell phone, which I loaded with 1000 minutes so they can call me whenever they want. I jump for joy every time they call.) And I'll keep thinking of them and praying for them and sending all the love I got out to the subcontinent so they know I'm still there....