Welcome Home, Everybody!

We are finally all in the same country. Randy returned safely from his trip to Virginia and was treated to Plumbing Woes, Parts 2 and 3 soon after arrival. (Yes, the raw sewage has returned. We are hoping to have our landlord step in and pressure our downstairs neighbors to have their pipes cleaned out. Otherwise, this will probably become a weekly occurence.)

Kevin and Sean arrived home Saturday evening from a week-long trip to Turkey. They joined up with over 100 youth from our organization in the Central Asia region for a retreat led by students from Union University in Tennessee. Along with the chance to visit with old and new friends, they enjoyed a hike to Ephesus. Mom is just a tiny bit jealous--I love history and visiting historical sites. Seriously, I'm glad they were given such a unique opportunity to visit the site of one of the early churches.

The boys had a safe trip and learned some new skills, such as getting through immigrations, exchanging money. Above all, they followed the primary mandate: DO NOT LOSE YOUR PASSPORT. They did have a rough time coming back into the country. For some reason, the customs officials had decided to do a complete baggage check on every single passenger. It took them nearly two hours to get through the lines.

Sean arrived home wearing a brand new t-shirt. He was too modest to tell me about it, but Kevin filled me in on the details. There was a talent show one evening, and Sean signed up for it. He borrowed a guitar and played "In Christ Alone", and was picked by the staff as one of the top three contestants. Needless to say, we were quite proud of him, especially since he's only been playing for a few months.

Hannah Grace has been very excited to have all of her guys home again. She was a Daddy's girl for a day or so after Randy came home and followed Sean all over the house, chattering away. We aren't sure what she told him, but it sounded like she was filling him in on everything she did while he was in Turkey.

Please pray that we can have a little bit of "normal" family time before summer arrives and things get really busy with volunteers and student projects.