Been there. Done that.

There is a place where we belong, a place we call home. It is so much to so many people - a repository of precious memories; a place to grow up and grow old; somewhere love and acceptance (for our cranky morning self and little idiosyncrasies) abound; a place to return late at night and still find food on the table or snacks in the kitchen; where family (in every sense of the word) is found.

But perhaps the most important thing that makes home special, is that it is incomplete without me. There is a "me"-sized/shaped space in every home that only "me" can fill. It comes complete with a "me"-arranged room (kinda messy, in my case), a "me" sized bed (guess I've reached my final adult height and won't be growing any taller...boo), a "me"-flavoured toothbrush, a "me"-favourite mug, several "me"-sized shoes etc.

Coming back home for good after months on foreign soil, sleeping in a dozen of foreign beds (Philippines, India, Australia, and most recently Philippines again), I've seen/experienced/learnt so many things that I can hardly contain them, much less process them into meaningful life lessons. That will come later, I suppose.

I can't help but remember the beautiful time in Philippines with Joanne and Charlene (aka Kuting and Butterfly). Thank you for sharing your hearts/lives with me and being willing to share in mine. In India I found 2 long-lost brothers (yes, they're Indian), and jammed the blues in Amigos cafe with total strangers. In Australia I spent money and grew fat. haha. And on this mission trip I slept among dogs and chickens under the same mosquito net as SK, climbed a mountain I had failed before, hurt my knee coming down, learnt how God is able to do so much more in me than I dreamt possible, and realised that for all the pain (I won't be running anytime soon...will probably go for surgery in a year or 2), it was worth it.

So for the moment (until God calls me away to some foreign place), the Sam-shaped hole here is no more vacant. Hmm. I've been thinking of getting a dog, though. Gringo was really cool. Wonder if there's a dog-shaped hole somewhere in my house...