I thought I wouldn't be posting here anymore since I'm home, but I was reading "Streams in the Desert" today. My friend from the program recommended it to me, and I thought it would be a great help in processing my time away. There was a poem in today's devotional that hit home. I had to read it atleast twice. It more than fits why I decided to leave and how I healed in ways I had both hoped I would, and ways I was unaware of. Even when I've forgotten that my God is there, He is. Even when I've forgotten how His hand has been in my life, or forgotten that He is still at work, He is.

There was a scar on yonder mountainside,
Gashed out where once the cruel storm had trod;
A barren, desolate chasm, reaching wide
Across the soft green sod.

But years crept by beneath the purple pines,
And veiled the scar with grass and moss once more,
And left it fairer now with flowers and vines
Than it had been before.

There was a wound once in a gentle heart,
From which life's sweetness seemed to ebb and die;
And love's confiding changed to bitter smart,
While slow, sad years went by.

Yet as they passed, unseen an angel stole
And laid a balm of healing on the pain,
Till love grew purer in the heart made whole,
And peace came back again.

Four months have past, and I'm home now. I'll be making slideshows and videos all about this whole experience, and hoping to share them with anyone I can. If you don't see it through pictures and recordings, you'll see it through me. It has become a part of me. If you'll know who I am, you'll know how this has made it's way under my skin. For the better.

Saying goodbye is never easy. It has been the best. There is a season for everything.


The courtyard.


The alley.



The market.






The Cathedral at night.


On a walk.


One of my favorite views.

It is time to close. But I'm called home, and I'm ready. Thank you for the prayers in every way. My grandfather is doing so much better... I don't doubt it's a miracle. All PRAISE to the ONE!

My Grandfather's spirit is a thousand times stronger than his body. Please pray that he makes it through this, too.

I'm in the last days of my stay in Italy. Just 11 days left. I can't believe it went so fast, and nothing can calculate how truly amazing this experience has been. At the two-month-mark, I felt an unfamiliar, unsettling dread that only two months remained, and that was quite the struggle. Now, I feel a healthy pull towards home. No, I don't want to leave. If I can, I'm coming back. But I can firmly say that on the day that I take my bags and get on that plane, it will have been the best it could have and should have been.

All things outside of my control, I give to my Father. Uncertainty is faith. Not knowing, I will only trust.