Clean white sheets, a door on my bedroom, a comfortable rocking chair, fully loaded bookshelves, food that tastes good, understanding what people are saying around you, (I feel like I am eavesdropping since I understand what strangers are saying to each other) peace and quiet, hot and cold running water, (I keep burning myself on the hot, forgetting that there is something other than cold in that faucet.) phone calls from friends every evening… These are a few of the things that make coming back such a treat.

I am shocked at how clean America is, how sparsely populated the cities are, (OK, so there are still a lot of people, but they are so spread out!) how big the people are, how many NICE cars people have, the number of malls available, the huge variety of choices even in small stores, the beauty of manicured lawns, and how spoiled the pets are.

Everywhere I look, I see things that I desperately want to share with my children. Wouldn’t they love to ride on an escalator? Or sit on Grandma’s comfortable sofa and enjoy all her pretty things? They would love the huge lawn, and stare in wonder at all the things in the stores. I know that they would go wild with enthusiasm over the food, (Yes, they learned to like American food a long time ago) and they would just be blown away by the musical program we had at church last week. (They even sang some of their favorite songs) Oh how I want to share all of this with my little girls.

As wonderful as everything seems to me, there is still a dark side…murders on the news each night, horrible car accidents, terror, and looming government shutdowns…I don’t want to bring my girls anywhere near all that. It all boils down to the fact that there is only one safe place that I can take them. One day soon, Jesus is going to come back, and I am planning to take all of the girls, and as many villagers as want to join us, on a one way trip to Heaven, first class! (None of this economy stuff for us!)