Now on to April

Now that I've finally finished putting up all the March posted (all 3 of them, haha), let's talk about April...  It began with the 3rd quarter's exam week at school and with it came a terrible round of sickness.  We were sitting in a teacher's meeting Wednesday morning of that week when I started feeling body aches, sure enough by the time I got home my fever was at 102.2 and stayed there for about 4 days.  After two trips to the doctor, a shot, and two different medicines, we finally landed on it being an intestinal infection and thank the Lord for strong antibiotics.  After that was a week of school and this week is Semana Santa (Holy Week, aka the week of no school and lots of fun times!).  Actually, I'll be posting pictures and filling in about those fun things later (get excited).

For now, what's really been on my mind is my return home.  I have been here for 8 and a half months with less than 2 before I come home.  Beginning to describe the number of mixed emotions and the intensity of them all would be a daunting task, but here's the crux of my thoughts: never in my life have I ever been so far away from home for so long.  Even though it's only about 5 or so hours worth of flying (about 1500 miles) it has felt like a whole world away.  It is after all a different world down here ;-)  But more importantly than never having been away so long, is the realization that I've never  before longed for home so intensely.  Part of me definitely doesn't want to leave all of the people and experiences I have enjoyed so much down here, but my heart is yearning to see my family and friends again.  It is a deep yearning that can distract me from doing any work at times.  A yearning that is always with me and more intensely the closer I get to June...

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.  For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.  Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling...

What a beautiful thing it would be to be yearning as much for my heavenly home as I am now for my casa in H'ville.  May God teach us what a sweet dwelling place he has prepared for us and may we long for it more with every day.