And we're back in the States. We arrived in Des Moines Friday afternoon, about 3 hours later than initially planned, but oh well. Who'd have guessed that US Customs would be the cause of us missing our flights. We made it all the way to the US from Africa and all, but nope long lines in customs made us miss our flights. Luckily, Delta was able to rebook us quickly and we were back in the arms of our loved ones in no time. The flights over here went well. Eden did awesome, even on the 15 hour flight. Two in-country flights followed that doozey, though those seemed like cake in comparison. The past few days have been incredibly busy celebrating Mother's Day and connecting with family members. We take off again tomorrow (Tuesday) for a short trip to visit donors in South Carolina and other peeps in Ohio. We're feeling a bit tired, but good.
We knew it would be an adjustment for us coming back to the US. We came from a place where we save every drop of water and where we're constantly confronted by a very real awareness that there are many around us who do not have enough food. Americans really do live in incredible luxury. Hot showers, wanna go somewhere? hop in your car and go, need something go buy it, type of thing. I found myself thinking, "Wow, we could easily come back here and live, free of the stresses of living abroad, enjoy a convenient life." but then a small tug at my heart, "What about them?"
I wonder if sometimes people think we live overseas because we think it's fun or that we're somehow wired a little differently and think its easy. Not really true. I'm not going to lie- there's some awesome benefits to living overseas, but it comes with a lot of sacrifices. A lot. There's many days, that I just think "Dear Jesus, just bring us back (to the States) for some time. That would be really nice, then I wouldn't have to take a sponge bath or make yogurt from scratch all the time." Shallow, I know, but I'm human. No superwoman. Nope, no superpowers here, just fragile little me. And there's a lot of people in this world in need of super healing. I'm just glad it's not my responsibility to bring it. I'm just to go and help out a bit.