Seven days have past since I stepped off the plane that brought me back to America. Seven days to begin wrapping my mind around all that happened during the past nine months. Many times this week I have had to stop and ponder the events of the past months to remind myself they really took place. Life is different now than it used to be. Yet at the same time it feels like I never left. I find myself doing things I never would have dreamed of doing before my race like being constantly worried I will get lice from sitting on couches, eating apples down to a steam and a few seeds, sleeping with my travel pillow, not using AC, and throwing toilet paper in the trash can instead of the toilet.

Life is more different that I thought it would be. It has been a trying and difficult but good week with only a few meltdowns. I could tell you the different triggers for said meltdown; I could try to explain to you how coming back is like going back through the wardrobe in Narnia, yet nothing would fully describe this experience. I’m homesick, not for life before the race, or the person I was before, but for the community, friends, and family I gained, and constantly feeling His presence, being surrounded by dozens of kids at a time, for cooking over an open fire in the bush of Africa, and bucket showers. Like I said earlier, coming back is hard, at moments it feels like the hardest part of the trip; yet it has been good. I’ve come to realize the Lord is calling me to GO! To go and to do His will. And for now His will is for me to be here in Mississippi.

The question I am left with is this: “When shall you send me, and where will you send me, Lord?” I am excited to know what is to come, but He reminds me to just be, be where I am, to enjoy the gifts He has for me here, spend time with the friends and family I haven’t seen in awhile, and then in His timing He will tell me to go, and to do His will in the nations. For this is a close to one chapter of my life; another chapter is just beginning.