Home

Ok...so I have been so focused on keeping up with my photography blog, that I've totally neglected my family blog (how sad is that???) Anyway...I wanted to write a little of the last month. Kevin has been away from us since the end of March and I was not handling the separation well at all. There have been few, if any, times in my life where I have truly experienced homesickness. I am truly a gypsy at heart. I love new experiences, new places, and new faces. But, probably the combination of being a lone mother of a two year old, living in a foreign country, and just missing Kevin to death brought on a rather crazy case of homesickness. So, we flew to the USA to be with Kevin. And what a fun experience it has been!

I was super worried about flying for 10 hours with a toddler. But, once again, my little master-traveller handled it beautifully. Out of 14 hours of being on the "road" so to speak, we had 5 mintues of bad behavior. I was amazed!!! (Where did this kid come from anyway?) He played with the little toys I brought, his books, ate snacks, played with the earphones the flight attendants gave him and was happy as a clam. He briefly watched the airplane movies, and just chilled in his chair for most of the time. The guy beside us was amazed. You could tell when he sat down that he thought he'd have a rough flight. But, aside from the crumbs that were thrown his way a couple of times, it was a "good flight" according to him.

Our plane was delayed both in London and in Chicago. We ended up getting to Omaha at 9pm (about 4am our time). Kevin waited for several hours for us and it was so good to see him at the airport just reading his book. When we got home, we were so exhausted, we just fell into bed.

It took us a couple of days to recover. But, recover we did! And then the adventure began. The first week, we mostly ate at all of the restaurants I've missed, hung out at the swimming pool and basked in the sunlight, got a suntan, and played board games. For the first time this year, it truly felt like summer. I got a little bit of a sunburn, Weslee always smelled like coconut because of the sunblock we had to smear all over his fair skin. It smelled like barbeque in the air. And the hot, sticky breeze blew all day long. At night there were fireflies and a big bright moon. It was a wierd sensation of feeling like you're finally "home" and knowing all the while that home is thousands of miles away in a whole 'nother country.

The next week brought time with my family. Mom, Dad, Bubba, and his wife Tessa, Charla and my little clan all met at my brother's loft apartment in Kansas City for a weekend sleepover. We shopped at the outdoor market, went to see "Up", strolled through an art fair, and just hung out and talked. Weslee almost got his ankles nipped off by these vicious little dogs at the swimming pool at their apartment complex and he screamed joyfully at them at the top of his lungs. He was so excited to have those little ankle biters circling around him. I don't think he realized the growling was a scary thing. I was feeling a little edgy and overprotective. I'm not a dog person anyway...so I wasn't real wild about the crazy dogs at the pool. Dad made some awesome steaks for us to eat, and Tessa was a gourmet chef and we got to sample her food. I got to take pictures of the different family groups and we got to hear my sister's latest songs she's written. It was so awesome...and hard to say goodbye at the end of the weekend.

One of the coolest parts about going to Kansas City for the weekend was that we got to begin our adoption process. We met at LDS family services to begin the paperwork for another adoption. We're hoping the process isn't too long and tedious. We'd really like our family to grow. So...if you're reading this, and you know of anyone who is considering placing their baby for adoption, please send them our way. We'd love to chat with them.

Two days after returning home from Kansas City, we found ourselves on the road to Denver to be with Kevin's sister, Denise for 4th of July. Knowing that Denver is where we want to settle when we exit the Air Force really made Denver feel like home. We had such a fun time. We cooked out on the barbeque, hung out and talked until late at night, played Guitar Hero on the Wii, played the piano, went to the movies, and all of the nieces and nephews beat up on Kevin. He brings it on himself. It's wierd that Kasen, our oldest nephew in that family, has bulked up to the point where he could seriously contend with Kevin in a wrestling match. The two of them had fun messing around. We had so much fun laughing and joking around. I really miss that family!

And now, we're back at TLF. Weslee and I went to the pool for the last time today. The smell of coconut sunblock is still in the air. I have a photoshoot in less than an hour, my last photoshoot of the trip (I've done 7 in total). My camera battery is charging over by the toaster. My clean laundry is begging to be folded and packed away into the suitcase for the last time. I'm beginning to make to-do lists of things that need to be done when I get home. We'll have our last game night tonight. Finger printing for our adoption process tomorrow morning and our last meeting with our adoption caseworker. By this time tomorrow, Kevin will be alone in this very room.

He won't have to worry about me stealing the covers at night, or Weslee waking up at 3 am thinking it's party time. He won't have to worry about the laundry basket overflowing or cereal pieces all over the floor. There will be no one to contend with for computer time. In short, as Kevin put it, it will be lonely.

I am so glad for this short trip back "home" with Kevin. So glad for the laughs, and the memories, and the sunshine, and the fun we've shared together. It has been the dose of medicine I needed. But Man! It's hard to leave "home" behind...because you see, "home" is always where Kevin is. Where he is is where I belong. So, here is wishing that "home" comes back to England very, VERY soon.