The Introverted Thinker is home from Thailand!
The plane with 17 of our kids landed at 7:50 at SeaTac. The parents and friends and siblings gather outside the International Gate and wait, impatient, talking to each other. I bring food. She has been gone for a month and said, "Bring food." I have bread from pane d'amore, two loaves. I have butter and jam and peanut butter and three containers of strawberries, welcome home, welcome home.
They have been in Thailand for a month, teaching English to the children in a small town and being taught about another culture, about the diversity in the world. This is the 16th year going to that small village in Thailand.
And here they are! Much hugging and we all trail to the baggage. Each comes home with a box. Gifts and their purchases help to support the village.
They hug each other goodbye in a ceremony in the baggage area. I hold out the strawberries to tearful young adults when they break up. "Oh!" they say, "My first strawberries in a month!"
Home!
Bread in the car and nutella.
And as we drive into town at midnight, she says, "Home! But this is my childhood home and I am leaving for college! I am in transition!"
Me, too.