Well, I'm back :)

Actually, I've been back in the States since April 30th. 

Yes, it has taken me almost a month to type up a post. Such is my life at the moment.

I am hoping to will post more pictures and/or stories sometime this summer, either on this blog, or the new one I'm working on that will be devoted to my time in Italy. In the meantime, I wanted poke my head back into the blogsphere and give you a bit of an update. 

I've had the time of my life over the last three months. I toured Venice, Florence and Rome. I saw Michaelangelo's David, Pieta, and Sistine Chapel. I stood in the center of St. Peter's Square and sat on the balcony of St. Mark's Cathedral. I went to Paris and stood at the top of the Eiffel Tower at night. I stayed in an apartment in Trapani, Sicily, where I could literally take two steps out my door and be in a bread shop. I took a train to a town in the Dolomite Alps and spent ten hours walking around the most breathtaking landscapes with two people who I didn't even know existed last year, and are two of my favorite people in the world now. 

I could go on and on. And I will. Later. For now, I only  have a few minutes before I have to get back to my summer to-do list. It looks like this:

- Learn Italian

- Learn how to play the guitar

- Get all the documentation to file for dual citizenship

- Raise support to move to Italy for (at least) the next four years as a missionary

Yes, you did read that right. I'm moving to Italy! Lord willing, I will have everything in order to put myself and my life on a plane to Venice by September. From Venice, I will return to the sleepy little town of San Lorenzo, where I will take up residence at Saints Bible Institute as a full time missionary under SEE. 

I never expected to be returning to Italy for missions. I was never the kid who wanted to be a missionary growing up (and even if I had, Italy was never a place I thought of as needing missionaries). I was the girl who just wanted to see the world. I had thought that, maybe, I would get a job in Italy and stay because I loved it. I didn't really think that though. My plan was to spend a semester in Italy, come home and be with my family, and write full time while training Jiu-Jitsu four nights a week. So much for that ;) 

I'll have a more full-fledged update/explanation for the drastic change my life-course has taken soon. At least you now have an idea why my blog has been so dormant: my focus changed. I'm not giving up on my writing, by any means. I will write on the time I have off (which isn't much, but it'll be enough if I have a story). And I'm hopeful that, as I get into the routine of my new duties, I'll be able to find time on at least a semi-regular basis to start writing again. If not though, I figure I'm following Benjamin Franklin's advice:

"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing."