How to Come Home (For Beginners):

STEP ONE: WEEP

-Cry when you are packing your bags

-Cry a lot when you are saying goodbye to one of your favorite people at the airport and then it all feels real

-Cry when you see your best friend from home because you don't really know what else to do

-Don't cry for a week because your summer feels like it actually didn't happen to you and you don't want to talk about it

-Cry a week later when you finally watch the slideshow shown on the final night. Then be angry with God and tell Him that  He doesn't know what He is doing because you were really happy and now you're not sure what to do. 

Then read this:

God seems to plant His saints in the most useless places. And then we say "God intends for me to be here because I am so useful to Him." Yet Jesus never measured His life by how or where He was of the greatest use. God places His saints where they will bring the most glory to Him, and we are totally incapable of judging where that might be. Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

And this:

Crying is all right in its own way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or later, and then you still have to decide what to do. C.S. Lewis

Needless to say, I've never had to come home before. I've never had to leave a new place that has become home and leave strangers who have become family. 

It's more difficult than I thought it would be, and honestly I'm not very good at it. 

This isn't to say that I am completely miserable being back or that I haven't had valuable time with my people here because they are too good to my moody self, but it's a weird transition. There is so much I could share about what the Lord has done this summer, but he's still teaching me how to talk about it.

If you supported me at all this summer in prayer or financially or in encouragement, I am eternally grateful for you. God is using people in Chicago to show the love of Christ to that beautiful city, so keep them in your prayers still! I hope to use this blog to still share some of their stories because they re worth hearing. 

THANK YOU!