Today we’re driving to Georgia where we’ll visit one more church on Sunday before we fly out of Atlanta on Monday headed for Ireland (we’ll actually arrive on Tuesday, which is Valentine’s Day… romantic, I know!). We’ll miss everyone here, but we’re also excited to be able to get back to our home, church, friends and work in Ireland!

We’ve had a wonderful week in Georgia! As you can see, we got to visit a cool museum with friends, plus we’ve been hugely encouraged by the people and churches we have been able to visit with. And if that’s not enough, the temperatures during the day are pretty much the same as our summer temps in Ireland, so we’re really enjoying having a second summer in January!

It’s been loads of fun having Stephen and Ilyas here with us in Alabama. We’ve definitely had some cultural moments, many of them having to do with food. On the way home from the airport, Ilyas asked for “chips” at McDonalds, and when they said they didn’t have any it took a minute to realize they are called “fries” here! The all-you-can-eat buffet was a first, Ilyas said “I’ll never need to eat again”, but Stephen asked “can we come back tomorrow?” They think American cities are very spread out, have an awful lot of restaurants, and that it’s strange that people drive everywhere, but they’ve definitely enjoyed the price and quantity of the food here. Better go now… it’s time to eat.

Today Jessica’s folks are driving us down to Chattanooga, where we’ll stay the night and get to see what Daniel excitedly calls “the big aquarium”. After the fish, we’ll meet Seth’s folks who will take us the rest of the way to Alabama for the next phase of our trip. Wow, our parents are nice people!

From our ‘home base’ in Roanoke with Jessica’s folks, we’ve been able to see supporters and churches all around the area. Often it takes a bit of a road trip to get where we’re going, though. We’ve been reminded in the process of just how big Virginia is – and how big the roads are, and the cars, and the spaces between cities, and the stores… ok, most things. Maybe it’s not such a small world after all.

It’s amazing how much food we’ve eaten in restaurants since we’ve been in Virginia. When we see people, we almost always meet at a restaurant, so we go out to eat pretty much every day and most days at least Seth goes out to eat more than once. That’s a big change from our life in Ireland, where eating out is expensive and rare. If we don’t gain weight on this trip it will be a miracle, but oh boy is it delicious! Still, the best part is definitely not the food – what a joy to get to spend at least a little time with so many great people!