Thoughts on coming home
In less than two weeks we will be on an airplane, traveling to the US for the first time in two years. Going home. Even though I have been in Panama for almost 14 years now, and my parents have sold the house I grew up in, Oregon is still home. The smell of the pine trees, the fresh breeze, the blue skies, even the rain, it all says home. Yet, as many missionaries and other world travelers have found out, coming home is not always what it's cracked up to be. The first time can often be the hardest. A young missionary has just finished their first months or years on the "mission feild" and is ready to return for some needed rest. They dream of the foods they want to eat, the stores they will visit, long for hot showers and convesation with family. Yet when they arrive home everything seems overwelming. Their own home seems so much nicer than they remember. The plenty of food that they dreamed of just the week before suddenly seems like too much, as they vividly