Coming home should be easy……but for me, that’s not entirely the case.  This is the part of the trip where I feel I haven’t done enough.  I could have connected with more kids, given more gifts, or had deeper conversations.  I feel like I have received much more than I have given.  Ever since we left Slobodskoy yesterday, I have felt like a well of emotion is building in me.  I’ve tried not to think about the kids today because I’m afraid I’ll lose my composure.  The kids there have so little – yet they have given me so much.  Kids I didn’t even talk to hugged me goodbye.  One boy, Petya, even gave me a stuffed animal that one of the team members had given to him.  I wasn’t prepared for the depth of the love the kids showed towards me during our visit.

Coming home makes me appreciate all that I have – my wife Beth who held down the fort back home so I could make this journey, my two beautiful daughters who gave up their daddy for nine days, the nice home I live in – the list goes on.  I’m thankful also for the new friends I have made in my fellow travelers.  The eight of us now share a unique bond that no one can take away.  When I joined this team, I was “that guy from Virginia.”  Now, though, I’m part of a unique family that stretches from Virginia, to North Carolina, to Florida, and all the way to Slobodskoy.

God is good, everywhere, all the time!