At last the time has come for my (Josh) blog on re-entry. I remember well, the fantastic feeling of the wheels hitting the ground in NYC, that first touch on American soil. As we exited the plane, my anxiety rose, but for different reasons than just saying goodbye to the Squad. As an ISTJ (Introvert, Senser, Thinker, Judge) on the Myers-Briggs personality test, my worries were on all the little details. "We have to find our bags quickly, say good bye quickly, I really really hope these tickets print ok, I hope we don't run into any snags in customs or getting re-checked in, I hope we find our gate in time, I hope our flights don't get delayed or canceled" on and on these thoughts plagued my mind. Quite frankly, I was really starting to annoy Jen because I was voicing these steps aloud instead of in my head.
We got through all of the customs and baggage claim and re-checking quickly, to my relief and had plenty of time for our good byes. For me, I knew that many people we would be seeing in just a few weeks at Searchlight, so in my mind, it was nothing more than a new month on the Race. It was more of a "see you soon." As we made our way to the terminal, I became over-stimulated with all the familiar sights, sounds, smells of food, the outside air as we bused to our next terminal, the abundance of choices at the shops and restaurants, that I had no time to feel sadness or anything for that matter. I did, however, have many “Squad-Sightings” where you see or hear people that sound or look like squad mates, which would bring on a tinge of sadness and make me realize how much I missed and still do miss them. But, by the end of the day, I was zapped. It had been one of the longest days ever, so by the time we landed in St. Louis, I was ready for some good sleep. We met up with Jen's mom, brother Drake and sister Shelby, which for me was comforting, being among family again. We watched a couple of episodes of Adventure Time on the drive from St. Louis to Bonne Terre, MO which is about an hour drive on which I dozed in and out of sleep. I actually slept really well that night, even though I woke up at 7 a.m. I knew I needed more sleep than that, and was even kind of annoyed to be awake that early,but at least it was morning, so I got up, ate breakfast and then went on a walk…by myself!
I spent much of my time in Bonne Terre taking walks to the convenience stores to get snacks and drinks of my choosing, or walking up to the lake that had a trail around it. It was so refreshing to be back in Missouri with the summer still in full swing, the smell of the trees and woods and not having to worry about language barriers. We also got the pleasant surprise of having Jen's sister Jess come stay for a couple of days and bringing our 1 year old nephew Henry. He is so much fun and most certainly the smartest 1 year old I've ever known. He can almost talk, he can walk, he knows all the animal sounds and how to say please, among many other things. Jen's parents also took us shopping and that was a HUGE blessing. We were able to purchase a few things that we needed as well as some things that we wanted, which was really nice and something we hadn't been able to do in quite some time.
Then Jess drove us to Springfield/Ozark. The normalcy that I felt driving through the familiar places that I dreamed of seeing and returning to was strange to me. All was pretty much as we had left it. When we arrived at home, the only person there at the time was my brother David, as everyone else was at work. I walked in the door, and the first to greet me was Buddy, my parents' Bichon Frisee. At first, he didn't recognize me, (probably the beard), so he slowly backed away, growled and barked. But then he came up and sniffed me and got really, really excited. He even kind of peed on the floor a little. I also got a bro hug from David and he helped us get our things inside. The rest of the family came in throughout the afternoon, so each time it was a new round of hugs. We looked through our closets and storage boxes saying things like “oh yeah, I forgot about that book, or shirt or CD.”
The next day, my brother David took me to Silver Dollar City, our area's awesome theme park, which is only about 25 miles from our house, in Branson, MO. At first it was raining and when we got to the ticket booth, there was a long list of rides that would be closed that day. My stomach dropped as I saw that Outlaw Run, the new wooden roller coaster with 3 inversions was there on the list. As we approached the counter, I asked the clerk if those rides would really be closed all day. Much to my relief, he told us that no, they would be opening later once the rain had cleared up. It was about 11 when we got in to the park, an the rain didn't let up until about 12:30 or so, so we rode a couple of the indoor rides and had lunch. There's a really awesome new brick pizza place, and we split a 14" which we didn't think was that big, but when it came out we realized that there was no way we could eat it all. We did eat 3/4 of it and tried to give the rest away, but no takers. Finally, the rides began to slowly open up. Outlaw Run was one of the last to open, so we rode several of the others, and by the time we got over to it once we found out that it had finally opened, the line was about an hour long. But of course I didn't care. All things considered, that is a very short wait for a new roller coaster. As it turned out, I got to ride that ride 3 times that day among all the old familiar rides, and my conclusion at the end of the day was: “It's great to be back in the Ozarks!”
And great it is. We got to visit our home church and speak for a few minutes about the Race and what it taught us. I explained the concept of High light-Low light and gave mine for the Race as a whole. We were also able to celebrate Jen and my brother Zach's birthdays over the weekend, by going to one of our favorite restaurants, Hu Hot Mongolian grill, and with visits from grandparents and uncles, with grill-outs and cake and ice cream. We got to show pictures and videos to them. Then we went and visited my Aunt Carole, who has been amazing in keeping two of our cats. They were all excited to see us, including our cats, and it was great catching up on conversation with my aunt and cousin Ben who was home then, and pets of course.
At the moment, we are in Liberty, MO visiting Jess, Tyler and Henry. They've been spoiling us with great food, great conversation and a great town to walk around in. We did have a bit of trouble getting up here, as our car which has been sitting for a year and appeared to be in great working condition, did, at no surprise, have a couple of issues, which led to us taking it to a shop in Bolivar, MO and Tyler coming down to pick us up. We head back to Springfield tomorrow, only to be picked up by squadmate Christopher Courtney on Sunday morning to head to Gainsville, GA for the week of Project Searchlight to meet up with the squad again one last time and to get direction for our next steps in re-entry. Honestly it's all a bit scary and tiring, but I know that next week will be good for us.
At the moment plans are to be moving to Gainsville by the 7th of September for Jen to start her discipleship school and internship with Adventures in Missions. The last few days, I've been calculating, and the moving costs, including gas, apartment deposits and rent, a U-haul and some other bills will add up to over $1,500 conservatively. We have not yet found an apartment so be in prayer for that as well.
If you do feel led to help us with our moving costs, e-mail us at [email protected] or call at 573-915-8724.
