I was greeted at the airport by a fine winter storm. The snow was coming down quite quickly and the roads were very slippery. Lucky for me Perry and Barb have a big pickup truck and were able to get through to get me. I was a little nervous, okay, a lot nervous, about driving after four months of not driving, and add the bad weather to it and I was a total wreck about driving...so Perry and Barb dropped me at my Mom's Friday night to say a quick hello while they ran an errand for me and then came back and picked me up to take me to their home where I would be spending the week. It is quite nice to have a driver in bad weather.
The next days were full of family and friends...visiting and eating...it was all so good. Some highlights....
I was able to spend an afternoon with Kai, who is in Iowa from Singapore for training. Yes, she is in Iowa in the dead of winter!!!! I picked her up and off we went to the mall. It was very fun watching her excitement in the mall. You see, shopping in Singapore and shopping in Des Moines is very different. I had mentioned in my blog earlier that there is no where to sit at the malls in Singapore, when Kai saw the seating areas at Valley West Mall (you know, those couches and big comfy chairs in the middle of the mall) she finally understood what I meant when I said there was no seating in Singapore. Plus our malls in Iowa have big open spaces for walking around, and malls in Singapore use every single open area to have a store or a kiosk with a miniature store. We went to Super Target (oh, the mother ship I miss so much) and it was fun to see Kai look at everything. We are very blessed in America to have so many choices....I mean, there are 70 kinds of shampoo in Iowa....not so in Singapore! And the snow...oh, it was fun to watch Kai with the snow. She couldn't believe how light and fluffy it was. She had her camera out and was taking pictures and video of the snow. It was so fun...especially since that is exactly how I am in Singapore...click, click, click!!!
Sunday morning...home sweet home...at First Family Church. Oh, how good it was to be back with my church family. The hugs I received will last me another four months!!!! It was good to worship with my "family"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Finally....Sunday afternoon I got to see Zac. I couldn't quit hugging him. I missed him so much!!!! He brought his girlfriend, Brittany along and we visited at Perry and Barbs before heading to Outback Steakhouse. Yum-o!!!!!!!!!! Brittany was sporting a promise ring...very nice...Zac has good taste in women (oh my, I almost wrote "girls"...but realized he's growing up) and rings!!!! It was fun to spend the afternoon with them and hearing about what's been going on in their lives! My boy, he's a growing up!!!!!
Tuesday was Mom's surgery day. I'm so glad I could be there with her. You know, she's been through a lot with her health, and we witnessed another amazing miracle on Tuesday. Mom's valve between the upper and lower heart chambers has not been working properly for a very long time and it had finally gotten the best of Mom. She was tired all the time and just didn't feel good. The surgeon gave us his "hope" for the surgery as well as the worse case scenario. We waited....and the news was so amazing, it can only be explained by God's intervention. The doctor could not even believe how good the surgery went....it was a whole lot better than what the doctor even hoped for!!!! And the amazing thing...not only did Mom feel better right away, her voice is stronger. In the past I've had trouble hearing her on the phone because so much extra air is coming out when she speaks, and now I can barely hear that air. She's just not laboring for air anymore. As the week progressed I saw her feeling better and better. Her coloring was better than it's been in years and you could tell she just plain felt better. What a blessing to have been there and seen it first hand. This made the entire trip...flight delays and all...completely worth it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I got to meet my new grand niece, Avery, this week also. Mandi, Eric and Aden were blessed earlier in 2008 with finally getting Miss Avery from Taiwan to the U.S. to join their family. She is absolutely beautiful. What a journey it has been for Avery to finally get to Iowa. And I think motherhood has made Mandi more and more beautiful each time I see her. What a special time we had together for me to meet Avery and catch up on their lives.
I got to spend some time with my niece Jennifer, her husband Brian and their girls, Miss Bailey and Miss Abbie too. These girls have certainly changed in the time I've been gone too. It was precious when I got there because Miss Abbie "re-introduced" herself to me...as if I could forget her. It was so cute. She's changed so much!!!
Miss Abbie, Jennifer and Miss Bailey (Jennifer had put Bailey's hair in curlers...and looked just like Jennifer did when her Mom use to do that for her when she was a little girl)
I had a morning in the office too. It was good to see my team and shower them with treasures from Singapore. I had so much fun shopping for them and thinking of things that reminded me of them. It felt a bit "like home" being there, and yet a bit like being a foreigner in a strange land too....I know I've only been gone four months, but it was different...maybe because I was just "visiting".....who knows!!!!
My time in Iowa went very fast and now I'm back in Singapore for the reaminder of my assignment. It was good to get back to "home sweet away from home" and get back in a routine, but I am truly thankful for my time at home in Iowa.
In Singapore I carry my camera everywhere and am constantly taking pictures, but for some reason in Iowa I kept forgetting to get my camera out. Here are a few pictures I took while there of some friends I saw....
Emily, Greg and Landon Grylls, or GEL, as I call them :)
Liz, Leanna, Allie and Ellen - the Mullen Girlz
No comments:
Post a Comment