internationally home {31 days link-up}

{Joining Kate Motaung's 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes.  Here goes!}

Home was Dauntsey, with the swingset and parents living together.

Home was McGinnes, with fresh air and peaceful love abounding.

Home was Fourth Street, with my own space as I grew from a preteen to adult.

Home was East Elm, where I studied and grew in my obedience to Christ.

Home was Kyiv - multiple addresses - where I truly became an adult and became deeply bonded with a family of another culture.

Home was not really Overton, a transfer point between countries and lives.

Home is now Thuredrecht, with the roots beginning to grow.

If you ask me where I'm from, I'll easily answer, "Maryland."

If you say where's home, I'll list quite a few places - Maryland, Kyiv, the Netherlands.  Then other places will come bubbling up, places where I never really lived - Johnson, El Paso, Petersburg, etc.

"If home's where the heart is, then I'm out of place."

Home is heaven, yes, that's the "correct" answer.

But home for me is where I have deep friendships, where I know I am welcome any time, where there's a place for me to "hang my hat."  Home is shared with others - they share their home with you, and you share yours with them.  Mi casa es su casa.  

Home in that case is the home of my grandparents - and that is now just a memory.  I've learned so much from Mom-Mom's example of hospitality.

Sometimes the Netherlands is not quite home.  Our house, yes, is a place of comfort for us.  I'm so glad to share a home with my husband and cute baby son.  :)

I want to share our home - my sense of home - with others.

Home is only home with relationships - with family living together, with friends who become family, or friends who come to visit.

THE END