"Welcome Home."

I cannot tell you how long I have been waiting for this.
Actually, yes I can. haha. A looooong time.
Anyway, I am home from Spain, feeling overjoyed and excited and finally at peace. Four and a half months is a long time to be away. When we went through customs/border control at O'Hare yesterday, the agent handed my passport back to me, smiled, and said, "Welcome home." I absolutely loved that. One normally expects customs agents and other government workers to be overworked and tired because they deal with thousands of people and tons of shenanigans all day, but her smile and "Welcome home" just warmed my heart. It's one thing to hear it from your family and friends, but another thing entirely to hear it from a total stranger that you will NEVER see again. Maybe she had lived in another country for several months and knew how it felt.
So we left Denia at 2:30am on Thursday. Instead of sleeping before that, a couple of us girls decided to hang out at Sarah's and watch a movie. I stayed awake for almost 48 hours - 8am (2am GR time) on Wednesday until 11pm Thursday night. I slept in little half-hour chunks about 5 times, which is probably why I didn't go completely insane. Here's a breakdown of our journey home:
2:30am -> bus ride from Denia to Valencia
4:30am ->Arrive in Valencia, wait for flight
6am -> flight to Madrid
8am ish - 11:30ish -> layover in Madrid. Getting a little punchy.
11:30am ish - 2:30pm ish -> Flight from Madrid to Chicago. This might look like a short flight, but don't forget: we added 6 hours flying over the Atlantic. For someone who rarely is able to sleep in a place that isn't a bed, this is TORTURE. Getting seriously punchy.
5:30pm - 9:15pm -> Van ride from Chicago to GR. Everyone is exhausted and just wants to be home. Sarah and I passed the time by lip-synching our favorite Glee duets to each other.

Arriving at Calvin and seeing everyone waiting for us was the single best moment of the semester. My family came, my friend Allison came, and even my roommates Jessica and Rebecca came! Bex was supposed to catch a flight to Costa Rica the following morning (departing from her house at 3am), but she and Jessica came over anyway, and it was so nice to see her before she left for Costa Rica for 2 months.
Today I saw a bunch of people, surprised my middle schoolers at lunch, went to softball game (I really missed watching those while I was in Spain) and hung out a bit at home. I've having some trouble explaining with words just how great it is to be finally home. I had a good time in Spain, but it was more than time to be back.   I can't stop smiling and it's like everything is new again. I know that this will wear off after a week or so, which will be the PERFECT time to head out to the Conference Grounds! As fun as this has been, the Grounds is going to be even better. I can't wait. The Grounds is my second home with my second family and I'm so excited to get back to them.

This whole homecoming experience has made me think a bit about the purpose/inspiration of this blog. As fantastic and heartwarming and affirming as this homecoming has been, how much more fantastic and heartwarming and affirming will our homecoming be in Heaven? God will be there waiting for us, arms held out, and He'll say "Welcome home, my child." And we won't have to worry about leaving. We won't have to worry about saying good bye and leaving our loved ones behind. It's forever. I want to live my life in a way that anticipates my heavenly homecoming as much as I anticipated my earthly homecoming. It will be even better.

"Welcome home."