Three Weeks of Being Home

   I'm in a bit of a weird spot. I've been home for three weeks now, and I feel like I'm just on vacation. I've gotten a few emails from the director of the home with updates on the kids and have talked with my dear friend Laura and heard how all is going down there. Boy do I miss them. The home has a new baby now- Andy. He was found left laying behind the wheel of car. He was two days old. After calling aroudn to a number of the homes to find a place for him they called Judah Quy, and they decided to take him in. I saw pictures, he's so precious! In my mind I thought wow, I can't wait to meet him! But then realized I probably won't. Wow. I never spent more than 10 or 11 days away from the home- it's so weird!! Otherwise the kids are doing pretty well. The other little baby, Miguel, appears to have anemia, so they're working on getting him some vitamins to help with that, otherwise his virus numbers are continuing to go down which is leading us to believe that perhaps he really doesn't have HIV. Praise God! Esperanza is doing better and better. She has amoebas and diarrhea at the moment but is finally putting on some weight! She's up around 5 kilos, or 11lbs,  which seems like something we've been working at for forever!! So that's very encouraging. I haven't gotten much news on the others, so I would guess they're all doing well : )  I got to see some pictures from a Christmas part they had with the Hoffmans (the director's family) and they all looked like they were doing really well. I miss my babies!!
   Things here are going pretty well. Adjusting hasn't been quite as painful as I expected, but it still has it's moments. Like when I'm looking at pictures of my kids and break down crying. Or the other day when I was setting up a little bit of a budget. Goodness gracious. Life is blasted expensive here! Wow. When I was in Bolivia I was not paying monthly car insurance, I had to buy credit for my phone which cost me maybe 7 dollars a month (compared to 35-ish here) I didn't have a car to put gas in, I just took a bus or a cab wherever I needed to go (or walked), I had free rent, and food was ridiculously cheap in comparison. So that's been a little rough. And I miss my friends. It's hard to go from being invested in someones everyday life to not talking with them more than once every two weeks. It really sucks! On a happier note, it has been good to be home. I love my family, got to spend Christmas with them, and it's been fun to just catch up on "normal life" that everyone here has continued to have despite my absence. I'm involved in a super wonderful Bible study with a group of people that I absolutely love. It's so encouraging to have a night or two a week to spend with people that are incredibly on fire for the Lord, not only in things they say but also in what they do, how they live their lives. Some of them are friends I've had for a number of years, some I just met two weeks ago, but when I'm with them my heart feels at home, and I am so blessed to be a part of that group. Today I went and talked with my old boss and it looks like I will be going back to work in another week or two, which will be nice. It's fun to have some down time, but I also start to get a little restless after a while. Especially after this past year where I was almost always doing something. It's weird to just sit around! For a while it's nice, but then it starts to get old. I'm enrolled in classes at UWEC for nursing, short one that I need. Hopefully someone will drop it during the first week. I need chem 103 before I can get into a few other science classes I need to get into the nursing program, so we'll see how that goes. But, I guess that's about where I'm at. Life sucks sometimes, but for the most part it's not too bad :)  God has blessed me immensely, and I often can only sit in awe of all the things He's done for me and done in my life. He is one great God.

MILK!!

Here's a brief list of things that I missed while in Bolivia and have been enjoying since returning home (these are in no particular order):
-MILK! (I really like milk. They have milk in Bolivia, it just tastes really disgusting.)
-Snow
-Watching the Packers on a big screen (or just not via skype)
-Arguing with my Dad
-Being able to text my friends
-Deep fried cheese curds
-Frozen Pizza
-Driving!
-Cold weather
-So many friends and family members
-Being able to have deep meaningful conversations without having to ask "huh?", "what?" and "What does that mean?" all the time (ok, not all the time, but enough that it was annoying)


However, there is now a long list of things I miss in Bolivia (also in no particular order):
-MY BABIES!! Oh I miss them!!
-Chicken and rice. I ate that maybe half a dozen times while I was there, but now I'm just craving it!
-SPEAKING SPANISH! I'm afraid I'm gonna lose it
-Being able to get anywhere I wanted to go in 20 minutes or less for 3 dollars or less.
-Mi amiga Laura
-My church
-Cheap living expenses
-Coca-cola made with sugar
-saltenas
-A long list of missionary friends and Bolivians who had become much like family
-Micros
-Warm weather
-Did I mention my babies??

So as you can see, my world is now somewhat divided in two. I love being home (usually) but in some ways, oh how I long to return! I try not to dwell on the things I left behind, as it only makes it harder to move on, but as you can imagine I will always carry a piece of Bolivia with me wherever the road leads. I just pray it takes me back there someday soon.