Friday was all about friends!! From early until late, we spent time
with great friends all day. The day culminated in an open house for all
of our friends in the Orlando area. Thanks so much to Pat and Bryan
O’Bryan for hosting the party. It was great to see everyone and to
catch up on their lives.

Today is our last day in Orlando as we head to Houston tonight. We will
spend the day with our good family friends, Gene & Susan Rodney.

Jet lag is still here. Pray that it goes away soon.

Thursday was non-stop all day long. Valerie headed out the door at 8am for Starbucks and Target. She was quickly overwhelmed in Target as she started to look through the clearance items. After being with any decent sales to speak of in Budapest, it was hard to figure out what to do with all these sales. Then, Valerie was on to get a new haircut from her favorite hairdresser (the appointment was set almost before we booked the flights).

Tom spent the morning at Campus Crusade’s headquarters seeing friends and coworkers. It was great to catch up with everyone.

We also had a great lunch and dinner with friends at Don Pablo’s and California Pizza Kitchen. We are greatly enjoying the wonderful American Food.

Friday includes more of the same and chance to catch up with all of our Orlando friends at an Open House that is being held for us!

No international trip would be complete without a little jet lag. Valerie, Kirby Ann and I were all up this morning between 4am and 5am. Totally normal, but I wish we could have slept a little longer. It would have made it a little easier tonight.

I made it through the 5th inning of the World Series. I was sad to find out this morning that I won’t get another chance to watch it. It is amazing that the Cardinals bats just disappeared after being so dominant all year.

Well, we arrived safe and sound here in Orlando. All of our flights were not just on-time, they were early. Kirby Ann was wonderful. She didn’t complain too much and was pretty much happy the whole way.

Since this was Valerie’s first trip to the US since we moved last summer, we were eager to see how she would react. The first thing we did after clearing customs was go to Starbucks. We have been a few times in Vienna so it wasn’t totally a novel thing, but when Valerie heard the people say “Can we help you?” in perfect English, she said that tears started to well up in her eyes. Now how many people have had emotional experiences over Starbucks?

The other thing that struck us was all of the big vehicles. We aren’t used to seeing so many mini-vans and SUV’s. It was weird.

Also, when my parents said that they wanted to take us out to eat on the way home from the airport, both Valerie & I thought, “We can’t go to the restaurant with luggage in the car!” In Budapest, you never, ever leave anything in your car while it is parked in the city. It was funny that this has become so ingrained into both of us.

I’m going to see how much of the World Series I can make it through. It might be my last chance!!

More tomorrow. Thanks for all of your prayers. God was definitely at work in getting us here safely!

Here we go!!  Tomorrow morning we leave for the airport at 5:15am to head to America.   It is going to be a long day, especially with a 4 year old in tow.   In order to give you some perspective, 5:15am here is 11:15pm on the East Coast and 10:15pm central.  That makes for a lot of traveling since we don’t arrive in Orlando until 6:00pm.  I’m tired just typing this!!!

Pray that Kirby Ann will sleep and stay entertained. 

I’ll try to update the blog each day and give you our thoughts from the day!!!!

These were the words of my 4 year old today after lunch. I guess it is one of the realities of raising your kids overseas that they don’t know about things that are truly American.   We will work to keep things like this from happening again. What a tragedy!

This week, Valerie, Kirby Ann and I head to the US. We will be visiting
Orlando and Houston! I’ll try to update our blog regularly with our
adventures and the things that strike us as unusual after living in
Europe for a little over a year. We are looking forward to friends,
family, Mexican food, and Target!!!

Keep watching for updates (Hopefully, I will have time)

A few weeks ago, I blogged about our pending decision on whether to stay in Budapest long term.

Through much prayer and consideration, we have decided to stay here in Budapest rather than return to the US. We took the family to TGIFriday’s and marked the occasion. On Oct 15th at 6pm CET, we made the decision that we will stay.

We are excited about what the Lord has in store for us, but it is difficult to think about being far away from friends and family. At the dinner, each of us listed the good things about staying and the hard things about staying. Each us had family and friends at the top of the list of things that are hard. I trust that the Lord will give us the grace to endure. I’ve put off posting this here as I process it myself. At times I wonder, “What have I done?”, but ultimately I know that I’m right where God wants us to be.

WOW!!! The Aggies came back from a 2nd half deficit to tie the Colorado Buffaloes in the final seconds and then won the victory in overtime. What a team! This victory will prove to be very important down the road and it will give this team the confidence to never give up.

Amazingly, Aggie quarterback Reggie McNeal has not thrown an interception all year with 195 attempts. Also, the Aggie team has only committed one turnover all year through 7 games. Unbelievable.

Watch out Sooners!!! Nov 6th could be a detour on the road to the National Championship. I’ll be there in the stands (hopefully).

Another disappointing loss for a Houston team as the Astros lose the Cards in Game 7. Except for a couple of Rocket’s championships, Houston is a city of 2nd place teams. The Oilers always made it far in the playoffs, but could never win the BIG ONE. The Astros have been on the doorstep of the World Series before, but without a win.

I was hoping for this to be their year. Also, I’m going to be in Houston in a little over a week and it would have been fun to enjoy the World Series along with them.

Maybe next year . . . but probably not.