"Home" by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

 "Home" by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros is quite possibly my favorite song. It's connected to many fond childhood memories and is one of the songs I love to sing in karaoke, especially with my little sister, Clara. I attempt to sing Alexander and hit his low notes and she sings Jade and her high notes perfectly. Not to mention the beat and lyrics are absolute fire.

My favorite verse is the first verse of the chorus (I know, very cliche). It goes:

"Oh, home, let me come home

Home is whenever I'm with you

La la la la

Take me home

Mama, I'm coming home"

I like that the songwriters use the word "whenever" instead of "wherever". In Taiwan, I had a lot of homes. Well, only 3, but it still felt like a lot because usually we never stay in hotels. Earlier this summer, I also had a lot of homes. Even though we traveled to 23 states and woke up in a different place almost every night, I didn't feel homesick because every day I was surrounded by some of the people (and animals) that I love most. I got to see a lot of close friends and family, as well as spend almost every day with my sisters and parents and crazy (dumb) dog. Even if I missed my friends, they were always just a quick text away.

Anyway, I digress. My point is that home isn't really wherever my house is. Instead, it's whenever I'm surrounded by my people. My friends and family. My village. 

This isn't something that I came up with, by the way. You've probably already heard this before. I'm just mentioning it because I haven't ever really given it much thought before, but now that I've spent more time away from my house in California this summer than I ever have in my life (on my mission trip and at my cousin's house in Alaska, on our cross-country road trip, at my oma and opa's house in Michigan, and now in Taiwan), I've realized that feelings of love shouldn't be dictated by a physical place. After all, God is with us everywhere, not only in church on Sunday. He's with us when we read our Bible, when we spend time with friends and family, and even when we mess up and sin (Matthew 28:20 has been immensely comforting to me these past few days whenever I felt isolated and alone because I was on the opposite side of the world). 

I mentioned "my village" earlier. Similar to my home, my village isn't a physical place, though it would be really cool if it was! Imagine being able to live in a place surrounded by people who are willing to pray for you and whatever you're going through. Who might not even know you personally but I still feel a connection to them because I've heard about them and their overwhelming love. Sounds kind of like heaven... oh wait. ;)

The other day, my grandma texted me and told me that my cousin, Nick, meets with some of his friends from Pepperdine to pray for me. A lot of other people from other friends' Bible studies and prayer groups have been praying for me as well. I've never even met these people, and maybe never will, but I wish I could meet them and thank them. (If I haven't met you before and you're reading this: hi! Nice to meet you (sort of)! And thank you for your prayers. I'm eternally grateful. Seriously. Like those three little aliens that Mr. Potato Head saves in Toy Story. Here's something you should know about me (if you haven't already picked it up): I'm a woman of culture. Specifically Disney/ Pixar culture). 

This was a lot of philosophical stuff. But on to the real reason I chose that song for the title (I was very proud of this blog title, by the way): I'M HOME!

That's right! We're back in California! My dad and I have been looking for a flight home ever since Monday morning because I'd recovered a lot faster than we both expected (thanks, God!) and wanted to spend more time in California before school started rather than in Taiwan. Miraculously, we found a flight that had 2 empty seats (by the bulkhead, so our long Fieldhouse legs could survive the 12-hour flight!) next to each other on Monday night shortly after my post-op appointment. We jumped around for a bit after booking the flight, then proceeded to shower, pack up our bags again, and skip over to the airport.

I wrote my last post at the airport. We were being sneaky and didn't tell anyone that we were coming home except my mom and little sister, aunt and uncle in Alaska, and oma and opa in Michigan that we were coming home. Hehehe.

Thanks to the time change, we left Monday night/early Tuesday morning and got home Monday night. The next day, we decided it would be fun to surprise my grandma and grandpa, so my mom called them and asked if they could come over Tuesday night and watch the Olympics. My dad and I came over as well, then went in a few minutes after my mom and sister did. They were so confused! It was awesome.

Unfortunately, my dad and I had spent enough time in Taiwan that we had somewhat adjusted to their time zone, so we were once again jet-lagged last night. We spent about 2 hours watching the hilarious farming TV show Clarkson's Farm. I don't know why he thought it was a good idea because it's an absolutely hilarious show, but I can't smile or laugh because it hurts (when I "smile", it looks like a cross between the Chris Pratt Parks and Rec meme and Ghostface). So, at 12:00 a.m. this morning, my dad was in stitches laughing and I was trying not to laugh because... stitches.

We finally headed up to bed around 2:00 a.m., and while dad could fall asleep right away, I had to do my daily dance party/deep cleaning of my mouth, nose, and lips. It has over 20 steps, takes about 40 minutes, and involves lots of Phil Wickham, Hillsong Worship, and Jordan St. Cyr songs. Needless to say, I finally fell asleep at around 4 in the morning. Oh well. Small price to pay to see my family again.

Before I end this post, I wanted to tell you some of the things that God has done:

- I have no pain (except in my hip whenever I jump around too much in my dance party or smile too much, which I can't complain about) and I haven't needed to take any of the heavy-duty opioid pain medication since I left the hospital. This is a miracle in and of itself because they both make me super loopy and they taste awful because we have to break them up into powder and drink it in juice because I struggle with swallowing pills

- I've been able to swallow the largest pill of my life (antibiotics), which I've never been able to do before, instead of breaking it up and drinking it

- We got home safely (obviously) from Taiwan and our luggage wasn't lost!

- My sister, Molly, is having a great time at Hume Lake!

Two major prayer requests:

- I've lost over 10 pounds already, so I would really appreciate it if you prayed for a bigger appetite so that I can get more food in my body.

- I'm not sure why, but my concentration is still really bad and I haven't been able to finish my summer homework and school starts in less than 2 weeks. This sounds really stupid writing it down, but I stress out a lot over deadlines and lose a lot of sleep worrying about whether or not I'm going to finish everything before the first day of school, so I'm not able to fully relax until everything is done. So, I would really appreciate prayers for a clear head.  

I think that's it! So happy to be home.