Off the Road Again

Hello again. It's been six weeks since my last blog post. I hope I haven't lost some of you in the long silence. I've been so busy packing boxes and suitcases, shipping some belongings, storing others, clearing out our house in Vietnam, flying to the United States, staying with family in California then with family in Michigan, moving into our new home in Wheaton, unpacking, and getting the boys settled into a new routine that I haven't even thought about blogging (or Facebook or even e-mail). Now, I am back online and eager to sweep the dust off my blog.

We loved seeing our families and had fun watching the boys get to know their grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins. Caleb is convinced now that ever new kid he meets is a cousin. (You'd think we were from Kentucky or something.) Just this afternoon we took a walk to a neighborhood playground and then around the Wheaton College campus. Along the way Caleb saw several clusters of kids and insisted that they were all family. I suppose he will get things straightened out eventually.

It's been fascinating to watch the boys take in so many new experiences. When we stepped out of the San Francisco airport into the parking garage, Caleb tugged my arm and said with wide eyes "Look, Mom, a car store!" We had to instruct him not to take his shoes off at the door going into church and not to strip down to his underpants to eat spaghetti. (We were a little lax about clothing living in the tropics.) Nathan loves riding in his carseat (for which we are very thankful!). He watches out the window and shouts "Uck! Uck!" every time we pass a pickup or an SUV or semi-truck or minivan or camper or car or motorbike. It's nice when he nods off.

After all the hours spent in the air or on the road, we are relieved to be in our new home. Well, at least three of us are relieved. Caleb is more reluctant. I think he may actually hate change even more than I do. Our first night here he cried and clung to me saying, "This isn't our home. I want to go HOME to Vietnam." He misses his bed with animal sheets (which are currently somewhere in the port of Los Angeles) and was only partly consoled by the cowboy bed a friend had prepared here. I'm hoping that the many perks of living back in the States (playgrounds, a library, green grass and trees, cooler weather, ice cream, popsicles by the box) will soon sweeten the deal and make this new home more acceptable. In the meantime, I'm praying for patience.

Enough for now. I will write again soon. It was good to see many of you over these past few weeks. We will surely keep in touch.

Blessings, Heather