Ethan is Home!

Ethan came home on Wednesday after spending seven weeks in California selling pest control. Welcome home Ethan! He looks the same, just with nice pest control tan lines on his legs and arms now. Ethan missed Peter the most. When Ethan hugged him, Peter acted like he was seeing a ghost or something. He didn't quite know how to act.  "Peter! It's me!!" followed by "What did you guys do to him?!?!"

Peter was acting like he was thinking "This guy looks familiar... but he also seems like a stranger... no, I've seen him on the phone, but now he's here... how did that happen? I guess it's safe to pretend to hug him..."

We'll give it a few days, the memories will come back.

And then just like that, Ethan will vanish again off to the world of home MTC. His mission start date is still July 14th and he got notice this week that he will not be trained in Mexico. We saw that coming though. We're not sure how he's going to do that - whether he'll do it here in the basement (I think it's not ideal, I'm sure there will be too many distractions and interruptions for him. Maybe in Corey's at home office it might work...) or he's throwing out feelers to see if he can go to his grandparents' house, or maybe I'll reach out to some neighbors who are empty nesters to see if they want to host him. We'll see. As for now, he's been gone every night since he got back, hanging out with his friends before they go their different ways for their missions. Ethan has been sending us great Marco Polo and What's app videos while he's been in California. He's not into much writing or texting... he likes to vlog his life. I don't think that makes them very easy to search when you're trying to find a memory, hence why I blog. Here is one last video that he sent us this morning.

He arrived home at 7:30-ish on Wednesday night. He came home, showered and changed his clothes,

Then he left to go bowling with "da boiz". Then it made us laugh that three hours later, he texted Corey: "I don't belong here. I'm having a seizure. I could be making bank right now. I'm actually feeling really sad. I miss Lancaster." Thursday morning he continued is sadness: "I miss Lancaster so much! I feel like I just got back from a tour, but I literally didn't have any fun (on the tour). I don't know why I'm missing Lancaster. I want to make bank and buy a Range Rover!"

Also, when he got back that first night from hanging out, he went to bed and didn't enjoy sleeping in the middle of the triple bunk bed. He let me know the next morning that he'd like to move into the basement. "It was literally so hot last night. And it took 20 min to get out of that bed. Joseph and Talmage are my best friends and I literally miss them. George and Truman are stupid. I'm having a mini panic attack. Why do I love it so much now that I'm home?!" It's been very entertaining to watch his withdrawl. (And Truman, George, I don't think he really thinks you guys are stupid, he was just seeking a verbal outlet.) Corey said that the thing that makes Ethan so fun (and also difficult sometimes) to live with is that he wears his emotions on his sleeve. Joseph has polo'd him some comforting words. Joseph said that he and Talmage miss Ethan too. It's a lot more quiet and boring without him, but they've also been a bit more productive in some ways, so they're trying to look at the bright side.

So it's been fun. Today is "date night" (which is one of the only things on our weekly schedule that let's us know what day it is...) Corey worked at his parents house today, so I picked him up, then we went to Beaumont Bistro again, and then we went on a hike up Millcreek Canyon. We didn't know where we were, and didn't have reception so we couldn't figure it out while we were on our walk/hike. But after we got home I figured out that we were up Porter Fork, I think I found the rock that we finally found to sit on so we could eat our picnic. There was like no place to sit in that little canyon. Next time we'll probably go up Little Cottonwood, but it was kinda fun to explore and not know where we were going. As we turned a corner, it looked like there was an open space and Corey thought perhaps we had found a meadow.

...but it was a dumpster. And it was really full, well past the max. Someone should come haul it away and empty it. We ate by a little stream (Porter fork, right?)

I think I found the rock we sat on, but I couldn't totally tell cause there was no street view.

Back at home, I read a great article by Tad Callister in the Church news. Go read the whole article, it's not long but it's great, and timely with all the protests going on. So we'll end with my favorite part of his message, the "beautiful babies" part by F.W. Boreham, a Baptist minister:

“(In 1809) men were following, with bated breath, the march of Napoleon, and waiting with feverish impatience for latest news of the wars. And all the while in their own homes, babies were being born. But who could think about babies? Everybody was thinking about battles. … In one year, lying midway between Trafalgar and Waterloo, there stole into the world a host of heroes! During that one year, 1809, Mr. (William) Gladstone was born in Liverpool; Alfred Tennyson at the Somersby rectory; and … Abraham Lincoln drew his first breath at Old Kentucky. Music was enriched by the advent of Felix Mendelssohn in Hamburg. … But nobody thought of babies. Everybody was thinking of battles. Yet … which of the battles of 1809 mattered more than the babies of 1809? …

“We fancy that God can only manage His world by big battalions abroad, when all the while He is doing it by beautiful babies at home. When a wrong wants righting, or a work wants doing, or a truth wants preaching, or a continent wants opening, God sends a baby into the world to do it.”

I am so grateful to have one of the beautiful babies of 2019 in my home. Is there a wrong that needs righting, or a truth that needs preaching, that this beautiful boy will share? I wonder what work God has sent my/His little Peter to do

As for today, my heart has been full to just behold him playing with his duplo blocks. ...and taking selfies

Mel and I enjoyed being present and beholding him. Peter will be grown up and going on a mission like Ethan before we know it, cherish these small moments, they pass quickly.