Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Third Home, Third Family

Our ten-day free travel adventures are over and all ten of the students are back in Montevideo at Casa ACU. The ten of us had split into three groups (four students in Chile/Peru, two students in Chile/Bolivia/Peru, and four more in Brazil). It felt strange not being together for so long. After all, we live together and had seen each other every day for the past three months!

My time in Brazil was unbelievable, but I was also very excited to be back home in Uruguay. On the flight back, we kept saying "we're going home." That struck me as odd but very true. For the past four months, Uruguay has been my home. If "home is where the heart is," than a part of my heart is here now. Of course Albuquerque, NM will always be my hometown, but I believe I can have more than one "home" in my life. Sometimes it's the mountains of New Mexico, other times it's the flat plains of Abilene, and still other times it's the bustling city of Montevideo. What a blessing to call three places home!


And of course what is a home without a family. I have "families" in all three locations. My wonderful, loving, biological family in Albuquerque, my sweet friends and church community in Abilene, and my new family of ten students and three teachers here in Uruguay. We call ourselves a family here at Casa ACU often. These students have become my siblings over the past four months. We have lunches and dinners together, we share the same house, we have movie nights, and we will even be celebrating Thanksgiving together as a family next week. Last night, the two students who traveled to Bolivia/Chile/Peru came home. They had gotten stranded in Bolivia for three days (longggg, crazy story) and arrived back safe at last. When they got here, everyone was screaming in the house, hugging, laughing, and jumping around. They called themselves the "prodigal daughters," home at last. A beautiful picture of community, yes?


There are exactly 20 days left in the semester until my new family and I are on our flight back to the United States. Bittersweet is the only way to describe it. I will be sad to say goodbye to my new home and my new brother and sisters for a time. Still, I can hardly WAIT to be reunited with my old, familiar home and family/friends! What a sweet reunion!


So there you have it, my thoughts on my new home and family. God has blessed me entirely too much to have three homes and three families. He is a good God indeed.

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