Quick Trip Home

Well, some of you know this, but I took a trip home this month for my little sister’s wedding. My plan was to be home for just one week, but after thinking about it, I decided to change my flight and go home early to surprise my family! Only a handful of people knew I was coming home early, and despite my travel setbacks, I made it home just in time for my niece’s 10th birthday party! She and my oldest sisters were the sweetest people to surprise. This is where I must acknowledge my sweet friends Ashley and Tad, who drove to Detroit very early Sunday morning to pick me up; I’m so thankful for them!

This time, being home was just as busy as the last. I spent a few days with my sisters and niece and one day with my dad and mom. The whole purpose of my being home, though, was for my sister’s wedding, which, if I do say, was a beautiful night celebrating their first anniversary! While I was home, I obviously caught up with friends over lunch or dinner. I even made a trip to Ohio to gather information for our maternity area in the Clinic. I had the opportunity to see some of the OB nurses who were here just a few months ago, as well as some who had been here before that.

I also had some guests on this trip! Angle, Baruc, and Paul all made the trip to Indiana to join in on the wedding festivities! While they were there, we experienced just about everything Fort Wayne had to offer: Tin Caps baseball, Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo, Powers Burgers, Coney Island, Zestos, Father’s Day cookout, swimming, water slides, Sweetwater, Putt-Putt, Rock climbing, Church at Pine Hills, and more. To say the days were busy is an understatement, but they had a great time!

As I have shared in my previous blog posts, having my home in two places isn’t easy. I obviously miss my family and friends in the States, but when I am there, I miss my family and friends in the Dominican. After about a year and a half, my family has a better understanding of what I do and why I feel called to do it. But I can be sitting in a group of people and still feel a little on the outside of everything that is happening. And in preparing to come home, I realized that’s a sacrifice I’ve had to make while being here. I can’t possibly know everything that is happening with everyone when I live 1,000 miles away from home. The other thing that is tough for me to do is spend my last Sunday in church at PHC. Here is some more honesty: since I don’t fully know Spanish, being in a church setting is really hard for me here, as I don’t comprehend everything. It’s not a place I am being filled. I try to be very intentional about listening to the Pinehills & City Church sermons during downtime throughout the week, but it just isn’t the same. Thankfully, I had my sweet friend Alyssa sitting next to me on my last Sunday home. So, when I leaned over and asked her, “Why?” she immediately prayed for me and then sweetly reminded me that Pastor Justin’s message was for me that day.

I spent my last day at home with my niece! She’s growing so fast, and I realize that if there’s anything I’m missing from home, it’s the magic of watching her grow. We had lunch at Panda Express with the Buchers and then went to watch “How to Train Your Dragon.” The seats were a little too comfortable, and I fell asleep for about 20 minutes, but I was awake for the best parts of the movie. We finished our day having pizza with friends and family before I had to say goodbye.

I traveled home on Tuesday, and thankfully, Angel, Baruc, and Paul picked me up from the airport, and we all came back to San Juan together.

It didn’t take much time for me to hit the ground running here in San Juan. We welcomed a group of three people who came to visit the Clinic and explore the dental program. I showed them around San Juan on Thursday. On Friday, I took them to meet their team in Ocoa so they could continue on with their team and serve for a week here in the Dominican Republic. I’m looking forward to working with this team in the future in San Juan!

Being gone last week, I missed our first VBS team, so I am looking forward to this week and serving with the teams. While it does give me a slight reprieve from hosting medical teams, I continue to work with Bianca to organize the education for the end of July and promote our surgery teams that will be arriving in October and November.

I took a small break when I was home from Spanish classes, I learned last August that it was something I would easily skip and not make a priority, so I didn’t want to lose any credit hours this time. I will restart classes this week!

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