the funny things..

about being back in america.

1. i am freezing. they have a/c EVERYWHERE here. i had to drive home with the heater on my toes cause they froze at dinner. and i sleep in multiple layers...with the vent closed in my room. even now as i'm typing my toes are starting to lose feeling cause they're so cold. america is cold.

2. did you know the roads here are really smooth? they dont have pot holes. and there are street lights to light the roads at night. and all the traffic lights work. oh, and you don't have to change gears in automatic cars. or use the clutch. especially when the pedal that is in the classic clutch location is actually the emergency break. at first i drove with my left foot up on the seat so that i wouldn't be tempted to push the "clutch" (slash emergency break). oh and they have lots of street lights and i can see the road at night. that's a plus.

3. the internet is so fast! i mean, i can hit "play" on a youtube video and it plays immediately! no joke. and i just downloaded a sermon on itunes in less than 5 minutes.

4. cell phones have call waiting and voicemail. and you don't have to "pay" for every minute you use. so you can talk a lot. example: after i had been in the states for 10 days i had talked on my cell phone for 1200 minutes!!! (i'll do the math for you: that's 2 hours a day. insane, i know.) BUT 1132 of those minutes were FREE. yep, free. nights, weekends, free calls to other at&t customers. i'm apparently a strategic caller. and a chatty cathy. (source/researcher/minute analyst: sally downs)

In all, my transition back to American culture has been remarkably smooth. I'm grateful for that. The difficult part for me has been "catching up" with friends. But how do you really "catch up" on a whole year. That part has been overwhelming at times (i mean come on...1200 cell phone minutes!!). But I love my friends and I'm SO glad to have opportunities to "catch up". I've had some really great conversations with dear old friends...and THAT I love.

And of course there has been the family stress that we knew we would experience with Ma being sick. She's doing remarkably well considering the situation. She still has the blood clot...which causes her a great deal of pain and is still life threatening, but she's in great spirits. She frequently says that its no use thinking about her legs hurting or about being sick...cause she can't change that. So she might as well just enjoy the life she's got. That's what she says! And she always talks about how wonderful the people at her nursing home are. Today, as we wheeled her to dinner, she passed a nurse and said "hey little buddy." How cute is that? I am praising the Lord for her great attitude! It's phenomenal. And her mind is clear, which is a huge blessing because it hasn't been that way for a few years now. More praising!! I've been able to spend a good bit of time with her and its been "wonderful wonderful" as she would say.

So thanks for all your prayers for her! I'm still blown away by all God has done in this situation.

Since life has been non-stop busy since I arrived, we (my family) decided to go to the lake for a few days to chill out. We leave tomorrow and I'm so excited! I can't wait to have time to really process...and pray...and journal...and just relax. And maybe I'll do a little shopping at the outlets on the way. :) Maybe I'll have some interesting things to blog after I have some processing time....stay tuned.

That's all for now....I'm off to pack!