Home sweet home.

Hey there, y'all.

It's been a long time.

As most of you know, I (Kelly) have been in other climes for the last few weeks -- namely, Nicaragua and Haiti, leading IMPACT International trainings.  The trip was wonderful and successful -- full of enthusiastic training participants and great hope for the future of the IMPACT program in these new places -- but I have to admit, I am really glad to be home.  I love working on IMPACT International (most days) ;) and seeing this youth movement spreading into new cultures and languages, growing and morphing organically, taking on new shapes and faces and colors in each new place.  The work is challenging and complex and some days, a little overwhelming.  But actually being there, meeting the leaders who will be directly implementing the IMPACT program in their home communities and languages and churches, was so exciting and rewarding.  A good reminder of why the budgets and spreadsheets and Skype meetings are worth it.

But now it's time for me to remember why I am here -- in this little apartment in this little coal-mining town in the Carpathians.  Last night I returned to the girls' group I have been attending this winter and spring, a gathering of young women from the Pentecostal church across the street.  We meet weekly to talk about being a woman and being a Christian and what all of that means at the age of 15 in small-town Romania.  (Talk about some interesting cultural contextualization, since the book we're using is translated from English and written from an American evangelical woman in the 1980s!)  I hope to write a few posts about stories from that group later, because some amazing things have happened in those Tuesday evenings.  But for now, I am just rejoicing to be back, and to remember why I live in Romania, and not in an airport.  It's so good to speak Romanian again, even if Spanish grammar keeps falling off my tongue in these first few days of transition.  To taste freshly-squeezed juice, even if it's not from local tropical fruits.  To gather together with these women whose names I know, whose stories I am learning, whose hearts I treasure.  It's so Good.

And tonight we have IMPACT, me and Jack and Tibi and all our kids, and I can't wait to see them all again.  I am excited to play together, to tell them about the tropics (can they even imagine?), to show them pictures of Haitian tap-taps and Nicaraguan beaches.  I am excited to hear about the project they've dreamed up for this community, in these lovely mountains.  It will be Good.

And it is Good -- oh so good, does it even need saying? -- to be back with my husband.  What joy.

So despite the jet lag, and the groggy mornings, and the weird dreams and exhaustion that are plaguing this first week back -- it is Good, Good, Good to be home.  Because for now, this is home -- and I am rapidly remembering why it's here.