We have been settling back into life in the basement in Fort Mill. Our apartment is a little crowed with 7 more suitcases of stuff, but when you consider that all of our worldly possessions fit into one minivan….it is not that bad. We are so thankful for a great place to live during this time. Thanks again, Kirk and Emily.

My family blessed me with the opportunity to visit with an old school friend at here home in AZ. Rebekah and I had not seen each other in 14 years. It was a wonderful time to reconnect and catch-up on the last 14 years. I am so thankful for the people God has put in my life, especially this special friend that I met in kindergarten.

Also, Gavin turned 9 on Monday and Beth turned 12 yesterday!!! So much has happened over the last 9 years and the next 9 will prove to be just as exciting ( I could be a grandma in 9 years and Gavin will be 18!).

There is a lot happening right now. Aslan is on the move! (as C.S.Lewis would say). We will be back with more info later this week.

The “Red Bomb” motorcycle that Christian sent to his friend, Simon, in Lima arrived w/o any problem and that leaves us only 1 motorcycle in Pucallpa left to sell. We are so thankful for how the past month has played out. So many things that were such a blessing that we could never have planned…God is amazing.

We have unpacked and continue to be amazed at how little we own. Oh, well. We have what we need. Spring arrived in SC while we were gone and it has been a pleasant surprise. The kids are in awe at how different the woods look with leaves. We haven’t seen spring in 4 years. We LOVE spring.

We have finally caught up on our missing sleep from late night flights and returning rental cars….today was a day of rest. A day to catch up on all the loose ends…like finally calling the credit card company and finding out that our account has been compromised and someone has been charging lots of Apple products and shoes to our card. That is being taken care of, but I actually got an IP address of one purchaser and will be bringing it to the police. Who knows what will happen with that.

Know that we are back and this chapter has been closed I have caught wind of a slight depression floating around our home. We have waited in anticipation for so long to return to Peru – to live or to move back…and now that is done. The real sense of the uncomfortable and unsure future has descended on our home. We have a meeting on Thursday to discuss our future with SAM. Pray for wisdom and understanding. We will keep you posted.

We are in Lima now and are getting on a plane this afternoon for Miami. Yesterday, Good Friday, we tried to get in some last minute souvenir shopping but only a few shops in the Inca Market were even open. The mall was closed – everything but the grocery store was closed. Lima had a whole new look and feel that we had never experienced before. We went to the Parque del Agua last night with good friends from Pucallpa who came to Lima for the holiday weekend. We had a great time with Fredi and Yuli and their family. We were done at the park around 9;30p.m. and went looking for somewhere to eat dinner. Again, nothing was open. We ended up at a Chinese restaurant – the only thing open for blocks. Roasted duck wasn’t a menu item, but it still felt like end of the movie A Christmas Story, where Ralphie and his family eat Christmas dinner at the only restaurant open in town. Great memories.

I woke up this morning pondering the true significance of this holiday weekend. Thursday night – the last supper and Jesus arrested, Friday – he dies, Sunday – He raises from the dead……awesome, powerful, amazing. My life has been transformed due to this act of love and power by the God of the universe, but what about Saturday? I always find myself pondering Saturday. How awful and dark that day had been for the followers of Christ. He was gone and buried that day – hopelessness, confusion, hurt, regret, anger…all things they must have been feeling. They wouldn’t know or understand until Sunday, when they saw Jesus alive, what it all meant.

I guess I feel like we have lived through a big long Saturday. It was bittersweet to say our last good-byes last night. It is Saturday morning and we are neither in Pucallpa nor in the States (our kids have been expressing how much they dislike Lima for that very reason. It is the moment of transition). We take our plane around 4p.m. and will arrive at 1a.m. Easter morning in Miami – a symbolic new beginning you could say. We have done what we came  here to do – say good-bye, sell our belongings and tie up any loose ends. Apart from one motorcycle, a trailer, and a set of speakers, we have sold everything. God has given us great good-byes and allowed us to see how he has used our family for his glory in Peru over the last 3 years.

It is Saturday, and all is quiet. the work is done and we are waiting for our new chapter that begins tomorrow. We have had little time to ponder and pray for our future while we said good-bye to our past. We are excited and know something will happen, but like the disciples on the dark Saturday – we can’t even imagine the glory of Sunday. We aren’t seeing clearly into our future. We wait like Abraham, who hoped against hope and never doubted that God was able to accomplish all that he had promised. So we hope and we wait – actually we hope and we travel. We will get “home” late Monday night. We have a lot of decisions to make this month.

pray for mercy in checking all of our bags to Lima…lots of mercy and little extra baggage charges.