I've come to a realization over the last week or so. It wasn't a sudden light bulb sort of realization, but more of a slow, warm, growing knowledge of something.

After years of missing my "home", only living in a house away from home, I am finally HOME. Over the last week I've come to realize that I feel settled, comfortable, happy in this somewhat new place we call home. We are in a community that feels like home, a church that feels like home, the kids are in a school that feels like home. I feel like I know my place in this community, who my friends are, who I am. It's amazing that now that I know this, I feel so much more able to serve the One who is truly my home. And the opportunities seem to be falling from the sky right into my lap.

On the way from Klamath Falls back to Dundee/Newberg after spending Thanksgiving with his family, I commented to Reid that Klamath Falls is finally no longer home, but home is here, in Dundee, in our house at the end of Ione St., next to the vineyard. Oh, KFalls will always be special to me...the place of my childhood, where I grew into a young woman, where I met and dated and married my wonderful husband, and where we take our children to spend time with our families. This sort of makes me sad, but at the same time, so at peace, to know that I know who I am apart from that place, and that I have a new home here, and that home is more about who I am than where I am, though I can't say that I would feel the same if I still lived in that far off land of Texas! I guess I was born and raised an Oregonian, and just as people who were born and raised in Texas can never imagine leaving because it's so much a part of them, so it is with me and my Oregon, no matter which part of it I live in. It's part of me, and I am finally part of it again. I am....home. Ahhhhh.