They're BACK!!!!!!!!!

So since the middle of last July (PS---almost a whole YEAR for your slow mathematicians like me!) we have been waiting....and waiting....and waiting....

For what you ask? What is worth waiting a whole YEAR for?

OUR SOUTH AFRICAN PEEPS!!!!

We skype. We call. We email. We skype again. But we never get to touch, hug, kiss. And oh how we miss it! Every. Single. Day.

But not these days! Our Joe, Court, Bri, Brax, Bear, and Bris made it home to us again Monday night and there has been LOTS of lovin' going on since the moment they stepped off that plane. Oh the knots in our bellies as we waited at the end of that FOREVER LONG terminal, part of our family--- waiting for the other part as they ran to our arms. These "hellos" we're experiencing since our "dearest and best" have been living away from us will always be at the TOP of my favorite moments on this ole earth, of this I am certain. Oh the first few seconds of feeling Briley in my arms again---my sweet, sweet ray of sunshine who stole my heart the first second I laid eyes on her... of seeing my brother, so proud, walk up that terminal with all of his little family around him---more excited than all those kids put together, I know, to feel our love, too. To get to see Brax look at my Jude and say, "he DOES look like me"...to watch Bear immediately start wrestling with his cousins like only 2 minutes have passed since their last match...to see Jadey hug her long lost friend, Bristol, who she's finally old enough to appreciate...and to get to hug my FRIEND, my true sister from God, Courtney---for the first time since we said our teary goodbyes in my Mom's driveway. Gosh---has it really been almost 365 "sleeps"---because you just wouldn't know it.

Thank God for His tender mercies in that even this vast distance and time has not separated our hearts. Nope---we are close as ever!

Me, Tiff, Mrs. Susan and Kara waiting anxiously for the first glimpse of our South Africans :)

Cousins! What to do first when you're all back together? Go straight to Non and Pop's and swim til midnight of course! Oh the good it did my heart to capture this moment...these happy hearts just being "together" again!

So- not that I've been a very good blogger lately anyways--but I'm just saying that I will be very busy for the next 6 weeks---soaking up 6 of my favorite people on this earth. Gotta get enough to last us a whole year, ya know?

Oh the fun we're gonna have!