Following the yellow brick road

Have you ever felt like Dorothy, following steps on a yellow brick road, not really sure where they're going, but knowing you just need to follow the path?  That's what the last month (or maybe four years) has been like for us.  We never know where the next step is going to be until right before it's illuminated before us, and we have no idea where the next step after that will be or where it will lead.  We just have known that it was the next step that needed to be taken.  We agreed to let God be our guide, and He's taken us places we never imagined we would go or would ever have been able to go on our own.  We've met the most amazing people here and have had such an incredible experience.  So incredible and amazing that I don't even know where to start.  I have so much to process over the last month...these 30 days in Colombia are going to take me a long time to really reflect over and take in fully.  Life has been so full, busy, and incredibly complicated since we've been here that there was no way I could have even been able to blog about it each day or even each week.  We thought we came here with two agendas--to teach and serve at the Christian school and to just be a family to Julian again.  Little did we know that God sent us here with many more agendas than that.  It has been fun, exciting, amazing, humbling, rewarding, scary, confusing, frustrating, tiring, expensive, and to be honest, very hard to be here. I think we were all ready to go home about a week ago. However, we are now being blessed by ending our trip with the gift of being reunited for the weekend with a precious little guy who we always wondered if we'd ever be able to see again (Julian's little brother, our very beloved "Juan"--or so he was named in my book).  I knew I still loved him and would always love him, I just forgot how much and how deep that love ran through me.  To have him here by my side, to hug him each morning and night (and all day long), and to hear him say how much he's loved and missed me after all this time is absolutely priceless.  To see both brothers together enjoying each other's company in the presence of a family just melts my heart.  To sit in a room with them and wonder how in the world we got here is so incredibly humbling.  These are three days that I will cherish in my heart forever.  Who knows what's next after this or where the next yellow brick will lead.  We have met an amazing Christian lawyer who is working through all the legalities of this renewed relationship for us.  I'm just cherishing the brick we're on today because it truly is a gift when you let something go that is so close to your heart, and then God miraculously gives it back.

Looking forward to one last memorable day with our special guy, lunch with the woman who introduced both boys to Christ as young children so we can get Julian reconnected with her, packing and cleaning tomorrow, and then having our last dinner tomorrow night with our friends here who are from our own church family back home.  Then we'll officially be heading home just in time to watch the fireworks.  I'm ready to be home, but I have so, so, so many mixed emotions.  We're already talking about booking our tickets for next year as soon as possible.  I think we've found our home away from home.