After spending the last 2 years in Africa, we have returned to our Orem home.  We’ve been home a month now, and it’s time I checked back in here.  Sometimes you just need to take a little break to sit and process things.

This last month has been a lovely break from the daily blogging I did in Bamako and Abidjan.  The last 2 years of my life are recorded here:

Our Cote d’Ivoire Abidjan East and Bamako, Mali Mission

If you have not taken a look at that African life yet, please go enjoy a few of the photos and stories there.

Now I will return to this space and recording here.  Our last month has been filled with good food, wonderful family, dear friends and lots of doctor’s appointments.  We’ve been to the dentist, the skin doctor, medical doctors and eye doctors.  A few more appointments are on the schedule–the colonoscopy and the mammogram.  So far, all is well.  I’ve had surgery on both of my eyes to remove cataracts that were creeping into my vision.  John has had several cancer spots cut out.  It’s great to have a clean bill of health going forward.

One of the first things we did after returning was to go to a BYU football game.

The fans stormed the field after an exciting win over the University of Utah!

 Here are some of my dear Days for Girls leaders and friends:  Celeste Mergens, Kayla-Leah Rich and Camille Fronk Olson.

And dear friends, Toni and Arnold Bean, visiting from Yakima.

And here are a few pics from our doctor appointments:

One of the best parts of returning home in September was being here for the harvest.  We’ve loved the peaches, plums, corn on the cob and garden produce.  Yesterday I picked the last of the cherry tomatoes before the weather drops later this week.  The dehydrator is running now, stacked full of Italian plums or prunes.  I love it all so much.

We’ve also been doing a lot of sorting and organizing and taking things to DI, our local thrift store.  Here was our work sorting the toy cupboard and things for the grandkids.

We have also been sorting and organizing all of the carvings and Nativities we sent back from Bamako for friends here.  Our grand total of orders ended up being 17,864 carved pieces valuing $15,658.  There were 332 separate orders, mostly Nativities.  It turned into a big huge job.  We’ll be distributing them for awhile.

Of course John is spending as much time as possible in the yard where it is beautiful and quite untamed at the moment.  It’s good to be home!

John’s “work socks,”  He makes the kids smile as he wears out his old clothes.

We are happy and content and enjoying the rest for a bit.  It’s good to be home.  But we miss our friends in Bamako and Abidjan.