Home is where the heart is...

     My family is getting a lot better at visiting mine and my brother's hometown in the past few years. When we moved to Tennessee 8 years ago, we came back to the Mitten the year after to visit, and then not till 4 years after that. Now we try and go every year. At least we have the past 3 years.
      I'm proud to be in the south now, i love it. I love the sunshine and a lot of the people and so many other things about it. The pride the south has in America and the pride a southerner has in being from the south is overwhelming. I've met so many great people that I cannot imagine life without...but MOST have been adults :) It's been a great several years in the south. And I thought it's where I wanted to stay, but as I sit here in my friend's basement living area, in this chair, typing this on their computer, in Holland, MI.... I think back to this week. The beautiful scenery and weather and people. The memories that flood back into my mind of when my friends and I were younger. The Dutch-ness of the West side. The beaches and hometown feeling. I didn't realize that I didn't want to leave this week, tomorrow, until I attended my old babysitter's wedding this afternoon. My brother and I were a couple of her first kiddos she babysat and she loved us and we loved her. We'll forever have a bond because of that...but as I sat there in the pew and bawled my mixed emotions of tears in my eyes out, I realized all that i've missed in the past 8 years. My bro and I (mainly me) were not the main kids anymore. She's a first grade teacher and has been babysitting another family that we used to go to church with for probably the past 8 years. So now they're her kiddos. Cuts deep. Also, new stage of life. One chapter has closed and another has opened and that's emotional within itself.
     I know there are so many great things I've been apart of and a ton of great people that I've met and shared brokenness with and joys with....but I always wonder what life would have been like if we hadn't moved. Would I have close friends or a close friend? Would I be as strong in the Lord as I am now? Would I still have gone to Haiti or out of the country? Would I have missed so much? Who would be in my life right now? Would I be playing sports in high school? And other questions that I cannot think of at the moment :)
     Today has hit me like a train. I know I'm called to go where the Lord wants me to be. So, does this unsteadiness mean that my path will lead me back up to the north? To the cold and snow? To home? Only time and prayer can tell.
For His Glory

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