Taiwaneers

Well Emily and I have been here for several weeks now. The jet-lag is gone and its sort of interesting how easy it has been to settle into the familiar after 9 months away.

After a week at the Muffett house in Eaton Rapids we moved down to Sturgis with the Jefferies family. But before the move we were able to spend some quality time with the Pippers and my aunt, uncle, and adopted grandmother. Both were wonderful. Thats not even mentioning the qt spent with the Muffetts themselves. A complete bonus was helping SSI week 1 by being lobbyists the second day we were back!

Here in Sturgis has been great as well. We’ve been painting the exterior of the office building my dad owns. Its been rough doing manual labor and a lot slower going than I anticipated. Lets just say I haven’t grown any fonder of scraping and priming. Its nice to be working though and Emily is fun to try and keep up with.

While in Sturgis we got the chance to go spend a day at Lake Michigan on the beach and have a great time watching my nieces, Aberdeen and Isabelle, play in and around the water……along with the rest of the family. It was so much fun!

Last week my dad took me to a political meeting for a candidate and they actually asked for my advice on a few things…..I was flabbergasted as political advice, in my experience, is given often and requested rarely. It was a blast talking politics with my dad there and back in the car.

Emily and I also had two wonderful Sundays so far at Liberty. Its so nice to see the church family there. We also went to a July 4th party with many of them and got to see all my friends’ young children running around while the fathers, and myself, played hacky sack.

Yesterday we got the chance to go with my family to church here in Sturgis. It was, in a word, wonderful and was held at the home of my old boss from the coffee shop. Worshiping in English has been giving me chills.

I also discovered yesterday that my Calculus 2 teacher passed me even though she shouldn’t have. I was elated to say the least and couldn’t really focus on anything for a while due to my excitement. My sense of judgement was pricked but only mildly.

Oh I almost forgot. Saturday Emily and I, spur of the moment, drove up to Kalamazoo to spend some time with Dan, Evie, Aberdeen & Isabelle. It was fantastic and Dan even took us out for middle eastern where I ate my fill, that means a lot, of chicken schwarma and hummus along with some other things. It was a wonderful visit and fun to make the drive thats come to be so familiar over the years.

Today Emily and I rode bikes up to the coffee shop to read and hang out. I finished a Su Doku puzzle and Peter Kreefts Unaborted Socrates, which I have been in the middle of for over a year. It always makes me feel good to finish a book…..that probably means I should read more.

I’m sure I’m leaving some things out but suffice it to say Emily and I are thoroughly enjoying our time here in the states. Please feel free to give us a shout as we’ll be spending our time half and half between our families homes.