Home

Home is where the heart is?  Home is where they love you?  Do either of these describe "home" for our family?  Sure-but home has taken on a new meaning for me since we landed back in the U.S. a month ago.  I keep hearing us tell others that we are glad to be home-and we are.  But if home means settled and familiar, we have a long way to go!  On this last day of the shortest summer of our lives, I'm looking around at a sea of unpacked boxes in a house that is only temporary.  Last night Jackson, Kathryn and Joshua attended "Open House" at schools where they will all be new students yet again.  Geof forwarded me an email yesterday that informed us that our household shipment from Geneva is stuck somewhere in Germany and won't even leave Europe for another week.  Needless to say, I'm fighting the temptation to be stressed.

But if I learned one thing from this crazy upheaval to Europe and back again is that all of that really doesn't matter.  It doesn't matter what continent we live on or if my house is perfectly decorated.  Instead, I am blessed and thankful to be able to say that home to me is where I can crawl into bed at night with my husband and fall asleep to the sweet sound of our four children laughing in the playroom where they decided to have a slumber party on their last night of summer.

Albeit short, the month of summer that we did have was filled with family and friends and plenty of good memories.  Here are some pictures from our favorite time of the year:  Beach Week!

And tomorrow... another adventure begins! BRING IT!!

"I can do all things through Him who gives me strength." Philippians 4:13

Au Revoir Geneve!

It is not very often that you can close a chapter of your life with truly bittersweet tears; a heart overflowing with appreciation and gratitude for the opportunity to live in such a beautiful city, yet also filled with giddy anticipation to return home. Our last days in Geneva were graced with beautiful weather, walks through the city, great times with great friends and a 5th grade graduation.  It is hard to answer the question we heard so many times, "So, are you ready to go?"  Yes, of course!  We love and miss the US and all of our family and friends there.  But we also love Geneva and made many wonderful friends and memories.  Every minute of living there was an experience.  The challenges, the school, the trips, the visitors-each made our time in Switzerland a once in a lifetime adventure that we will each treasure.  It was a blessing from beginning to end and we are all so grateful for the privilege of living in a foreign country and sharing in the lives of the people there.   Here are some pictures that show some of the fun things we did the last couple of weeks in Geneva.  What they do not show is how difficult some of the good-byes were.  We miss so much of it already!

Kathryn's last days with her fifth grade buddies.  They were obviously a highly intelligent group:)

Kami with Eliza, her amazing teacher and my friend.

Our farewell bible study lunch.  Are those mimosas??  Yep!  That is how we do it in Geneva!  Such a great group of women who taught me so much this past year!

We all had "filet de peche" (the favorite dish of the region) .

Joshua at the end of the year breakfast with his best buddies, Tolga and Tatyana

5th Grade Graduation

The Speaker:  The World's Most Interesting Man

Proud Parents of their straight A student!

Ms. Darbyshire, Kathryn's teacher

Our last supper in Geneva with good friends!

Hey, Go Big or Go Home!  Actually, we did both:)

Oh, we did.