Celebration!

He's home!!!!!!!

Yesterday, about 4:30 p.m. he arrived in town; and the boys and I jumped in the van to go pick him up. I don't think there was a happier carload of people driving around anywhere in Harrisonburg yesterday! (Well, Twila Yoder might have been kind of excited to have her husband back, too...but I still think the eagerness in our car surpassed hers.) :)

Despite his fatigue from the trip and the inevitable jet lag, Jeff hit the ground running. The first thing he did when we arrived home (even before he went into the house--can you believe it?) was to take some wire up to the chicken coop to fix that little "issue" we were having there. :) Also last evening, after a supper of tacos (we had to get that into his system immediately, since he certainly didn't get his usual dose of Mexican food while he was gone), he headed off to a church meeting he had--but that he wasn't expected to attend at all! However, he wanted to be there, so we all went together; and the boys and I had fun on the playground while he had his meeting. It just so happened that some other children of the church were there, so it made it extra special and fun for my boys to have companions while we were waiting.

This morning Jeff was at the barbershop by 6:00 a.m. (they open at 7:00 a.m.) to get set up and caught up there. After a full day of work, he came home to supper here with our neighbors. We had 12 around the table (and Tobin in the highchair), and we all listened eagerly to Jeff's stories.

I think hearing his stories has been one of the most fun things for our family during the past 30 or so hours. I was incredibly grateful for the email communication we were able to have during his trip; but there's nothing at all like sitting around the table together, eating a meal, and listening to him share story after story. We're all eating it up.

I love this picture of him in Jerusalem, with the Dome of the Rock in the background...but oh, I so much more love the sight of him asleep on the couch in our living room right now...