Homesick

There are many levels to homesickness.  I honestly had never really had it until I moved to college and experienced cold, dark, tornado-stricken Illinois and had no one back home that would understand, but I got over it and am none the worse for the wear.  I think part of the reason why camp or mission trips and such never made me miss home was because I always knew that my situation would END and then I'd be home.  Here, this is 'home'... or some version of it.  It's not been too terrible in terms of missing things there in the States except those times when I log on to friends' blogs and see pictures that I wish I was in, for events I wish I was attending, with people I miss dearly.  It's hard to build friendships for so long, and then get used to not having those people around.  It was hard to see the girls from our old small group, all sitting together with their babies/bellies knowing that I "deserved" (my opinion) to be there on that couch too.  

Well, we got a phone call that made both Todd and I wish we could be 'home' for the first time since moving here.  We had an amazing group of friends in IL... we all ate together every week (or more!), we did Bible study, we moved each other... I guess you could say that we did LIFE together.  When the power went out, we would schlep to someone else's house that did have power- all of us!  They were a wonderful group and one couple called to tell us about another family, Ben, Kate and Mary Alice (4 months), who were going through a rather scary trial.  Mary Alice was born a bit early because of preeclampsia, which was hard enough to not be around for, but now she's in the hospital again because of pneumonia caused from a heart defect.  The whole family is anxiously waiting Mary Alice's open-heart surgery (again, 4 months old) and it is incredibly hard to be here, not able to do anything but pray from afar.  It's little comfort that we're at least bathing them in prayer when most people there in the States are asleep, but that was the only comfort we had... until Todd managed to outsmart the bandwidth restriction and stream Shine.FM (the local radio station we listened to in Bourbonnais).  We were able to hear our old pastor, our old worship team, and all the latest information from Bourbonnais.  It made us both realize that we could picture the church, picture friends and where they'd be sitting, picture the worship band and the pastor... it was all there, in our own mind's-eye.  It was such a blessing from God to know that, while we weren't there, those people still were, and Ben and Kate and Mary Alice were there, with those who hadn't left and were in good hands, just as we are here.  It's amazing how small the distance can feel when you realize that you're all in the same divine hands... we miss, but we miss a little less knowing that things have been left in good hands.