A few words before the 12 hour bus ride...

Praise God for good friends and times to rest. This past week I have been with Laura at her home in London, Ontario. I can't believe it's only been a week and a half since I waved goodbye to my children and sent them back to Uganda. Over the last 10 days we have rested, cried a little, laughed a lot, and tried to process where we are at. What a blessing it has been to be together. Together we have gone for walks, prepared for Christmas, drank LOTS of good loose leaf tea, watched our favorite movie-Anne of Green Gables, decorated a pretty snazzy looking gingerbread house, made several calls to Africa to check on our friends there, and...went to see the Olympic torch come through London on it's way to the Vancouver 2010 Games. It's been exciting. Christmas Eve and Christmas morning it really started to hit me how much I miss the kids and how lost I feel without them. I don't have any children to care for, no meals to cook, no real place to be. That's hard. I still have purpose in my life, it's just not as easy to see everyday. My goal in these next months is to rest and be renewed, but also to pour myself into other people just as much as I poured myself into those precious children.

It's 8pm and Laura and I are getting ready to board a bus in about two hours to drive all night to St. Louis. There we are attending the Urbana Missions Conference, along wtih 22,000 other young, enthusiastic, missions minded people. I am hoping it will be a great time of renewal and learning and not too overwhelming at this point. If your reading this I appreciate your prayers that God would use this week to help guide me into the next chapter of life. Will keep you posted!