Home.

For  a couple of days, anyway.  We leave Wednesday night to spend the night in Raleigh, before flying to Houston on Thursday...

Now, I'm going to share some things from my visit with Papa.

We had a really great week together, a week I will cherish for the rest of my life.  I'm going to list out some favorite moments now, in no particular order... Listening to him talk to an African friend in French on the phone.  He switched to French with no problem, and I was surprised that I could understand most of the conversation still.  When he hung up, I was showing him a picture of Bella.  He asked me a question about it in French before realizing he was off the phone, and I still understood the question, but answered him in English.  We both had a good laugh.  Each night, after dinner, we spent an hour talking about everything from his childhood, to meeting my Grandmother, WWII, leaving for language lessons in Paris (I mean what better place to learn French!), the first time they set foot in Africa, my visit to Africa and what memories stood out most for me from my trips, my Mom's childhood, stories of all us grandkids through the years, and so much more.  We had breakfast together in the morning where we watched the hummingbirds fight over the feeder, and squirrels and cardinals share a mason jar tossing of seed on the concrete slab where a nice swing used to be.  I learned a lot about Somba houses (giant mud huts in Africa), how they were made, and what each room was used for.  I read 5 books and watched almost no tv for a week, and it felt super :)  We ate fresh vegetables or fruits from someone's garden everyday.  Each night, before I tucked Papa in to bed, I sat with him while he prayed, and then I gave him several kisses and hugged him tight while whispering how much I love him in his ear.

Papa is my hero, and I love him more than I will ever be able to express in words.  It was really hard to say goodbye.

Now, I'm home, and very happy to be.  It felt really good to see my husband and kiddo's smiling faces this morning <3  As for today, we have a couple of errands to run before heading to swim lessons.  Jen Hamilton is coming over for a bit this afternoon, and I need to finish up B-bo's flower girl dress.  It should be a nice day.