Return to the Danube

Once again on a Sunday morning in early August we have trunks and suitcases packed, and we are off to Budapest, Hungary.  We will live in the same apartment, become reacquainted with the city and friends we have made there, welcome a group of Calvin students to an off-campus learning semester, and experience cross-cultural living for the fall semester.

As we prepare to head out, we note that our flowers are just about at their peak around the garden beds - the cosmos, zinnias, sunflowers, cone flowers, day lilies, cannas, rudbeckia, hydrangeas, geranium, fuchsia, sweet potato vine, and oxalis.  We've only had a few of our cherry tomatoes, and none of our heirloom black krim are ripe yet.  We'll miss these glory days of August, though this way we don't have to watch the flowers fade away, and we won't miss raking leaves.

We will miss friends, many of whom have gone well out of their way to send us off with care - we've been in your homes, we've met at local places for breakfast in the morning, or for local craft beers in the evening, and we will miss you.  Keep in mind you have a place to stay in Budapest.

We will miss our boy, Bastian, who will not join us until after he finishes his first semester at Calvin College - we'll stay there for Christmas.  Thanks to the many of you who have offered to check in on him, or drop him off at college.  It takes a village, a church, a great group of friends to raise a child, and we're grateful to have such a great community to trust him to as we go.

So follow us if you like - we'll be back, Deo volente, God willing -  in a hundred fifty days, just in time to close out the year.  Meanwhile, we are off this afternoon, arriving in Budapest tomorrow afternoon.

Peace.