One of those EPIC updates!

First off, we got married!  Fred arrived five days before the ceremony, and we rushed around getting all the last minute details sorted out.  Everything worked out, from license to suit to rings, and the day was really special for both of us.

We got a few days for a honeymoon, and spent the remaining three weeks having dinners, breakfasts, coffees, prayer meetings, Bible studies, road trips and sightseeing.  People kept asking us how we are settling into married life, but there's nothing settled about our life this past month! 

 As I write this, both Fred and I are in transit.  Our flights are on different airlines through and to different cities.  Fred left Portland for Nairobi via Amsterdam on Monday afternoon.  He'll arrive Tuesday evening, sleep, then jump on a bus down to Dar es Salaam.  I left Portland Monday night, stopped in New York City on the way to Washington, DC.  I am writing this from the ticketing lobby of the Dulles Airport.  I'll fly to Dar es Salaam via Istanbul, arriving really late Wednesday night/Thursday morning.  Fred will be there to meet me (God willing) and we'll immediately head to the bus park to catch a bus from Dar es Salaam (on the far central eastern coast of Tanzania) to Mwanza (on the far western border of Tanzania).  That will take all day, so we'll sleep in Mwanza, then carry on a few more hours to our home town of Shirati on Friday.  Whew!

Although this week will be a long, tough trek, after several rounds of goodbyes to family and friends, I feel much stronger than I did when I was making this trip in September 2009.  It was hard to say goodbye to everyone, but I have so much I'm looking forward to in Tanzania that it was much easier to leave this time.  I can't wait to see Fred on the other side of customs in Dar, and I can't wait to see our home in Shirati, but most of all, I can't wait to establish a home with my husband.  For the past several years, I've not been able to call any one place in this world home, but now Fred is my home, no matter where that may be, and that makes me happy.

So I'm almost back home...in the arms of my husband.  What a good gift from my Father!  A better home than I could have ever imagined.