Turning the Page

Today I am leaving Limoges; the sleepy little town in the middle of France that I have called home for the past four months. I have been wishing to leave this place for so long now. But, here at the very end I am a little sad to be leaving. I have made good friends here. I am just now beginning to feel at home in this city. And, I have made significant gains in speaking French. I wonder if I stayed longer how much more I would learn.

Yesterday, I cried while standing on the platform at the train station waving goodbye to friends heading off to Paris to catch a plane home. It hit me at that moment that the semester was really over. I have finished this short chapter in my life. I have turned the page right when the story was getting good and found it cut short.

So, today, as I turn the page on a chapter finished, I look forward to what God has written for the next chapter in my life. I know the basic outline. I will be in Norman among friends in a place that has been home to me far longer than this small town in France. In that I take great comfort.

A Strange Thing that Happens Sometimes

In the early morning hours between sleep and waking, I have the fleeting impression that I am in my bed at home in Dallas. One such morning I heard someone banging around in the small kitchen down the hall, and I was sure it was my mom in the kitchen downstairs cooking breakfast for everyone. I could also hear the trash truck outside my window on its weekly round emptying the trash cans, and I was sure it was my dad driving across the front yard in the truck pulling the noisy, rickety cattle trailer we have. I laid there for a few minutes completely convinced I was at home sleeping in on a Saturday morning wishing my parents weren't being so loud. But as I rolled over in my tiny bed and hit the wall, reality struck full force. It was not Mom making noise in the kitchen, and it was not Dad outside my window rattling along. I am in France, alone in my room, being awakened by the sounds of a busy dormitory far from a Saturday morning at home.

This has happened several times, maybe three or four times. Its strange, but pretty soon I will be waking up at home in Dallas. As of today, I have less than three weeks to go here in France.

A New Look

I found this awesome site with free backgrounds for blogs, and I escaped the boring black. Yippee!! I think now I will be more motivated to blog....maybe.

Thanks for the tip Anna.