Arrived!

We made it home very tired, but in one piece. Josh is sleeping and I can't believe I am still awake. I did get a lot more sleep than him. During our 8 hour layover in Amsterdam Josh took a quick nap. I didn't hesitate to tell him the instant he opened his eyes that I could not stay awake any longer (someone needed to watch our possessions). So, he let me sleep. I woke up a couple of times, determined to get up, but the final time I actually sat up and Josh said "Our plane leave in an hour and a half." OH, NO! I felt so bad that I had slept that whole time and didn't let him sleep. It still weighs heavily on me. :(

Anyways, thank you for your prayers. Our long flight to Amsterdam went by fairly quickly. We didn't sleep at all, though, as the row next to us was overflowing with toddlers. When it was time to sleep, they woke up and decided that it would be great fun to scream at eachother the whole time! I give credit to anyone traveling with a child, but I was a bit annoyed that the parents didn't even try to calm the kids down. Well, it wasn't even the kids that we were most astonished at. The row in front of us was the one with the big emergency exit door. So, there was lots of space there for people to stand around and stretch and wait for the toilet. One of the men in the row yelled at anyone who stood in the way of his TV, even if they were waiting in line for the toilet. He even yelled at the flight attendant to do something about it (it was all in Dutch, so I don't exactly know the conversation). Appearantly, while I managed to doze off for a minute, Josh said he yelled at one guy who finally yelled back. And do you know what was on the screen? Nothing but a map showing how far we had flown. Oh, and next to us was the guy who was REALLY angry about the kids in the next row. Every so often he would grunt and push himself out of the chair and walk to the front of the plane. Sometimes he would go to the toilet and slam the door. I don't think he was even trying to sleep or anything. And he even shut off Josh's air blower (the thing on top that blows cool air on you). Later Josh asked me to put mine on because he was getting too hot.

It felt good to get on the bus and know that we were nearly home. But then we had to lug our suitcases up the Mound and up a couple of flights of stairs in our building. Our suitcases are now unpacked, but our flat is a disaster. My counter full of American foods waiting to find their space in their new home. Since I didn't go grocery shopping I just ran down the street for some chips. And guess what I had with them...Sweet Baby Ray's! (thanks, Bessie)

So, it's back to normal life. As we were nearing Scotland I felt sad that a month had gone by so quickly; 2 weeks of anticipation and 2 weeks of holiday. I did actually start to wonder if it was a good idea to decide we would stay another 2 years. Everything in America was so familiar and I felt like I would just be spending the next 2 years as an outsider. As we flew over the mountains in Scotland my heart softened and I happy to see the country we had been getting to know over the last 8 months and would explore more fully in the next couple of years. As we were dragging our suitcases up the Mound, everything around me was familiar, and it was good to be back home.