Blessed Time at Home

The past ten days have been an absolutely blessing - I have been in one of my favorite cities in the world, visiting with my fantastic friends, and spending time with my amazing family.  It's been busy but fun.   I did sneak a couple mornings of relaxation in on my first few days home.  How can you have a porch like this and not use it? Especially for sipping on a sunrise cup of tea and reading a good book?

It was awesome to be home for Father's Day this year.  Last year I was in the swing of CHWC and was mid-tour when Father's Day rolled around, but it was such a blessing to be home hanging out with my family.  We started the day by going to church.  When we got home, Stacey and I prepped lunch for the family and thankfully Stacey was our grill master.  She did a great job :)

I have had the opportunity to meet up with a lot of my close family and friends to spend some quality time together.  One of the major highlights of any trip home for me is spending time with Natalie, Jason, Cici, and Kateri.  I am so blessed to be Kateri's Godmother and have been invited into their beautiful family.  When I am around them, I feel the joy and love of their family and the energy of the girls which radiates such light and happiness in my heart.  It's hard not to continually smile when I am with them.  Both girls are growing so fast!  Kateri's vocabulary is amazing! At 16 months, she knows so many words and can understand almost any direction you give her.  And Cici is a ball of fun and loves to dance, but is also super calm and wants to read for hours.  We sat in the living room and read story after story after story.  One of the books that she always asks me to read her is "The Giving Tree".  We actually read it twice in a matter of an hour.  It's no wonder to me that she loves this book.  Her parents are such great examples of what selfless love should be.  Although she doesn't necessarily think through the connection being that she is only 2 1/2 years old, she is comfortable with the idea of this "I will sacrifice anything for you" type of love.  What great role models for not only the girls, but also for me and our other friends.  An awesome perk of being "Aunt Cheryl" is that Cici painted me an awesome piece of artwork - it will definitely be something I cherish for a long time.   I've showed it off quite a bit to the other people I've hung out it with since I acquired my new artwork.  Who knows, it might be a part of my international gallery (aka my little pieces of home in Honduras in the fall.)

Now that my time home is winding down, it is great to have the opportunity to reflect on the greatness of God's love that he has surrounded me with.  He has given me so many people that love me and I cannot wait to share that love the every person that I encounter.  I have just one day left with them before I kick off the start of my travels with Catholic Heart.  Although I am going to miss all of these wonderful people so much, I cannot wait for camp to start!