What is the most American thing to do??

“Take me out to the ball game.. take me out to the crowd….”

It was a delayed birthday celebration for my brother’s birthday, and what a perfect last night home.  I have to admit, as cheesy as it sounds, I did shed a few tears when we sang the national anthem. Living in another country has made me appreciate so many things I have taken advantage of. I am thankful for this beautiful country we live in. Each country has it’s own individual problems, and our problems are very different problems than Haiti’s-but I have come to appreciate that land of the free, and the home of the brave.

A deep breath. If I were to sum up the ten days we had up North, that would describe it. We were able to drive up the coast all the way to Washington. That whole trip was like the huge, long, inhale you take when you first step outside on a warm, quiet, lazy morning. It was almost two weeks of .. well… deliberate nothingness. We needed some quiet time, alone time, together time-time away from Haiti, work, business, and people. (No offense, we love you all!!)  We started in San Diego and took the 1 and 101 all the way up the coast, camping along the way. Places we stopped included Big Sur, Redwoods, Oregon’s rugged coast, Washington, Seattle, Alki (where my sweet friend Nikki lives, and works for World Vision) Oregon national forests, and back down. It was good for the soul. Good for the marriage.  Good for alone time with God. Good all around. Oh, and I think I became a tree hugger overnight! Yup… I am in love with those massive trees. I think one particular moment solidified the fact that I could become one of those wacko’s who ties themselves to tree’s… We were in the car driving through yet another forest when we came to a clearing of freshly killed trees. It was then that a logger trucker flew past us-mind you were were going 55mph already-and started swerving probably cause we was going too fast. I turned to Brandon and said, “ I hope he dies, that’s what he gets for chopping trees down!” You should have seen his face! After we got over my shocking comment we couldn’t help but start cracking up…and yet, Brandon looked at me from the corner of his eye, I think slightly worried for the safety of not trees, but loggers.