adventures in dicoccoville

Billy just sent me a quick email from his phone. He is sitting in his seat in the plane on the runway ready to fly away from Africa for the last time of this 4+ year mission.  He'll land at JFK tomorrow and be greeted by lifelong friends - who will take him straight to his Dad's house. Bill and Billy will have all week together - being guys - being father and son, being family, eating hot dogs from street vendors and watching sci-fi -

I'm all teary as his flight takes off. Extreme emotion.

Sad at the ending of a season. Anxiously expectant at what lies ahead for our family. Hopeful and Joyful at the thought of a reunion soon. It's been a long 9 months since the kids have seen their dad. 3 months since I left him behind in Africa. We have a lot of re-aquainting to do on this side of the ocean.

Pray with us this month as our family begins to stitch its self back together again. Through adventures and rest and conversations and card games and ice-cream and prayer - we will essentially be learning how our family is a family again in this new season. It's exciting. It's a little bit scary.

He'll land on Friday - Saturday is his birthday. On his birthday, we'll be celebrating in Michigan by taking one step closer to having our own home again.
In the land of Facebook, I had some friends recently begin asking what furniture and household items we might need to make this transition back to having a house in the states. See, before we left for Africa, we literally gave everything away. So we find ourselves on the other end of the equation now, needing to rebuild a home.  I begin to jot down things as they came to mind and put them in a wish list here in dicoccoville - and then linked in from our story letter and FB page.
We've had friends respond in the most beautiful ways with things they are willing to share. One friend even showed up and then hung out in a strangers yard as they packed to move across the country because she had heard the moving truck they had rented was too small and they were going to leave behind a couple of dressers! Generosity on both ends!
A few days later, a family we know told us they were relocating to Seattle and continued over dinner with a beautiful story of life throwing a curve ball and deciding to start fresh by following passions and callings and leaving behind a legacy in MI while moving back home to the west coast. They told the story of confirmation after confirmation that this is the story God is writing for them - and how it's exciting and scary (yup). And then they said that as they were looking around their house realizing they weren't going to need to take all their furniture with them since their two children have recently moved away to university - they wondered what they would do with it all - and our wish list came through.  They amazed us with a gift that we will collect on Saturday and move into the garage of our new home to sit in expectation of our arrival the beginning of July.

It's a good time  - filled with such intense emotions, even the good parts make me cry. And putting it all together is nearly overwhelming. Thanks for being a part of the journey with us. We'll let you know how it goes as we continue to live it out this summer.