The Countdown has started. We've officially been in New Zealand for 6 months today. That also means that we have little less than 2 months left here. Seven weeks, to be exact. My heart is joyously breaking at the thought.

I'm so excited to get home and reintegrated back into my home church, Walnut Community Bible Church. At the same time, my heart breaks at the thought of leaving these beautiful people and this beautiful country behind. Who'd want to live amidst cornfields after she's lived in the most beautiful country on the planet?! And the fact that I'll have to face winter again…with the possibility of living in Chicago, one of the coldest cities to live in during the winter…it's not a happy thought for Caitlin.

Besides my qualms about the weather, I really cannot wait to get home. My seven-year-old nephew is counting down the days until I come home. He watches and re-watches a picture DVD my sister made each member of our family for Christmas with historical (or should I say hysterical?) pictures of my siblings, parents and I. He has slept in a bed alone for the first time in his life just because it's my old bed and supposedly smells like me. He talks about me constantly and can't wait to come to the airport with Papa and Grandma to come get me on May 16^th.

I have my dear friends awaiting my return to watch movies, to have our deep, theological talks, to eat fried spaghetti and popcorn until we've gone crazy, to watch old Hitchcock and Jane Austen movies.

I have my parents who've grown (spiritually, that is...) just about as much as I in the time I've been gone.

I have a possible and phenomenal education approaching.

I have my future.

New Zealand, I'd have to say, has been the biggest factor in my life in forming me into the woman I am today. And when I say New Zealand, I mean Emma, Dave, Joshua, Alex, Lisa, Kirsty, Matthew, Lauren, Dave, Trena, Bob, Christine, Trudy, Jasmine, Celine, Isaiah…Just the like the church, the people are who make New Zealand beautiful.

How am I supposed to leave this piece of my heart behind in 7 weeks? How am I supposed to board a plane and say goodbye to a land that has changed my life? How am I supposed to say goodbye to the people who've become part of me?

Jeremiah 29:11. That's how.