So this week has been filled with lots of laundry, unpacking, catching up with friends, sleeping in, and lots of administrative work for our ENC ministry.  And lots of appointments (which I will get to later).  It has began to set in the last few days that being back in NC is our new normal.

Whenever people travel anywhere for a prolonged amount of time, there is always a cycle they go through.  Now, I am no expert, but from what I have observed and learned, the cycle goes like this – arrive in new location, have a sort of high time for a few weeks where everything is new and great (honeymoon period if you will), then reality sets in and you want to go back to what you know, and then eventually, you settle in to the location you are at and begin to love it and that becomes normal.  We experienced this when we went to Russia, when we came back from Russia to the states, and once again when we got to NYC.  Now, we are experiencing it as we adjust to live back in NC.

For instance, sitting in church this morning, it was really weird not to see the same drummer and multi-cultural group of people leading worship as we did in the city, or to not look out the window and see the huge skyscrapers around us.  It was weird to hear the pastor talk about loving the people who drive slow in the fast lane, which I found hard to relate to when he wasn’t talking about bad subway etiquette.  It was weird listening to the song “God of this city” this morning during worship and thinking about NYC.  It is weird to think that from here on out, we will drive everywhere and not take the subway.  I  And not to mention the quietness of sitting outside our house – I keep wanting to say, where is everyone?  We love being back, don’t get us wrong, but things are just different and not normal to us anymore.  And one day they will be, we get that.

So, the other thing we have been doing since our brief trip back to NC, is lots of appointments.  Why, you ask?

We are thankful to the Lord for our new addition coming January 14, 2014!!  Kinsley keeps talking about getting to see the baby on the big screen (she went with us to see the ultrasound) and how the baby will be here after Christmas.  Emerson has no clue what is going on, being that she is so young.

And can I say, the Lord has a sense of humor?  Ed and I both had “planned” that I wouldn’t be pregnant in the city so I wouldn’t have to deal with the kids, being sick, and being tired.  Well, our plans were not the Lords.  We were pregnant the whole time we were there. Whoops!

Please join us in praying for continued health for this baby, for me, and for energy to do the things that need to be done for our family!