this journey

There are times when my life seems so appealing to people given the places I travel to for work.  I do not deny that I have had amazing opportunities to see the world between my years in the navy and my current job.  I have seen all of the Med, much of Europe, Asia, the Middle East...so many places!!  But here's the thing, travel gets old.  Travel appeals to so many people because of the different people and places in our world.  And yet fundamentally, people and places are the same.  We all are moving through our own journeys in our day to day lives and these bits of travel are exceptions to the rule.  So many times people just wish they were somewhere else, doing something else, "seeing the world."  I can't tell you how many people tell me their jealous of my travels.

While I appreciate the opportunity, there are many days where I am just as longing for something else...being home with my family.  Just like everyone else, I miss the day to day longing for something else.  It's true, sometimes my day to day takes me to Japan or Italy.  Today  my day to day takes me to Nebraska.  Just for a day.  Just for a meeting.  And yet this one trip will tack on more skymiles that add to our adoption miles that will pay for our plane tickets to Uganda.  How awesome is that?  So maybe today, instead of loathing in the fact that I won't see my son tomorrow, I will appreciate the fact that we will be that much closer to our mileage goal and thus one step closer to being in the presence of our next little boy.

I have not blogged lately because of many reasons, travel being one of them.  I had the blessing of being with my family last week in Illinois - for work, and with Jack.  I am thankful.  My husband had the blessing of having a week to himself...no work, no responsibility, just him.  I think he needed it.  

This week Justin started his new job teaching 8th grade reading.  Jack started daycare for the first time in his life (this should be an entirely different post but I'm not ready to talk about it).  I am heading to Nebraska for the night and, if the hurricane allows, back for the remainder of the week.  Then we get to go visit some amazing friends in Winston-Salem for the weekend.  We have SO MANY things to be thankful for.  And I have to remember that travel is a function of that.  Thankful for this journey.