The Things I Miss

• Apples. Especially now as I'm imagining the orchards in Michigan, ripe with shiny red orbs. Cravings for a good apple, and also for a slice dipped in carmel have been persistent. Except I was recently informed that there is a pathetically small amount of apples this fall. And I got to go to the grocery store where I purchased lots of apples. But still, I miss apples.
• Fall weather. Watching the leaves turn all shades of warm colors, seeing them glittering in the sunlight as they make their decent. The cool mornings and warm afternoons. The clear blue skies and the air that feels and smells and tastes so crisp.
• Grooveshark, pandora, and youtube. The internet here is slow, and it doesn't work to download anything. The music on my itunes is getting old.
• Walks in the country. Even though your eyes get adjusted to seeing trash and filth every way you turn, even though you become accustomed to the layer of dust that seems to coat everything, even though you even embrace it and enjoy it and feel at home in it, the more I get used to it, the more I want to talk a walk in an unadulterated field of grass, or through a clean and peaceful forest. Or stand on the waters of Prentiss Bay and revel in the peace and perfection of God's creation before you.
• Ice cream. I just do.
• Knox Presbyterian Church. I miss this more than almost anything. I miss the bus down to Detroit on Monday nights, I miss Turning Point on Wednesdays, I miss the fall retreat already even though it hasn't happened yet, I miss Lighthouse, I miss worshipping with so many friends of all ages gathered around, I miss my family small group and the mayhem of children and the food and the familiarity, I miss my Turning Point small group and the opportunity to share my heart, I miss Pastor Chuck's sermons, I miss all the conversations and all the love, I miss being profoundly known by so many and also knowing the stories and testimonies of those who surround me.
• I miss Cedar Campus. Because I always do.

I wouldn't exactly say I'm homesick, though. Because even if I miss all these things and more, the food here is nothing to complain about, my babies are becoming my life, I may not have apples, but I do have the most delicious pineapple, I'll miss the beautiful tropical flowers just as much as I miss fall leaves, I will always have Knox to return to – those relationships are there forever – and God's people worship and follow Him in Haiti and I get to be a part of that, and this wonderful thing called the internet keeps me as connected as ever I could hope to be. And God is faithful. I don't have to miss Him, because He is here in Haiti too.