{"id":4427,"date":"2013-02-24T03:11:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-24T03:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=4427"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:35:55","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:35:55","slug":"back-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=4427","title":{"rendered":"Back Home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It strikes me as surreal that Dats and I have been back from Haiti just three days.\u00a0 How easy and comfortable it is to slip back into the day to day life I am used to.\u00a0 But I discovered just over\u00a0a week ago that it was just as easy for me to slip back into life at the mission and at Cowman School.\u00a0 So which one is “Home”?<\/span>Dats was certainly feeling that tug of the heart in the direction of Haiti.\u00a0 On Tuesday evening – our last night in Haiti… for now – he seemed restless.\u00a0 At one point I thought maybe he had put himself to bed, but when I stood up I realized he was on the couch, apparently lost in silent thought. <\/span>He seemed to be procrastinating on going off to bed – sleep would only bring our final morning in Haiti that much faster.\u00a0 Dats sat around looking like this:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n

The next morning I had the unpleasant job of being the timekeeper – the one to say (repeatedly), “Say your final goodbyes to the Bundys.\u00a0 We need to get to breakfast because our ride to the airport leaves at 7:00.”\u00a0 It was 6:30 AM but the Bundy kids were on their back porch and so Dats was there too.\u00a0 Jake was flat on his back and wrestling the puppies and Brianna was holding and kissing\u00a0puppies and Alanna, in stocking feet, was dancing around the little piles of puppy messes (unsuccessfully!) and Dats was just soaking it in like he was trying to make a mental recording that would last at least until August.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n

The trip to the airport was smooth and we were happy to have the opportunity to ride in the back of the big truck, since Don was dropping us up and returning to the mission with a newly arrived team of seven or eight individuals and their luggage.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n

The flights themselves were uneventful.\u00a0 At one point, Dats was looking a bit down and I asked, “So are you sad to be going home?”<\/span>He replied, “No, I am sad to be leaving Haiti.\u00a0 There’s a difference.”<\/span>Indeed there is.\u00a0 <\/span>Of course we had reunions to look forward to.\u00a0 Melissa met us at the Indy airport bearing apple fritters … and winter coats!<\/span>Grandma had the night off from work, so she stayed home with the kids – a good thing since we didn’t walk in the front door until almost midnight.\u00a0 All of Dats’ siblings were sound asleep when we dropped our luggage in the living room.\u00a0 But the light was on over the kitchen table and the table was covered in notes and drawings.<\/span>From The Drama Queen:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n

And The Princess:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"\/
"yiw are the besd DaD"<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

And another from The Princess:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"\/
I had to turn to the experienced kindergarten teacher for a translation: "Welcome back, Daddy. I missed you.\u00a0 What about you?"\n\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
\"\"\/
The P.S. says, "Come in my room when you get home. I might still be awake."<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n

The wad of dollar bills was all the money Melissa had paid him over the week I was gone!\u00a0 (We don’t usually pay for chores, but with me out of the house, Melissa wanted to maximize helpfulness and minimize complaints.\u00a0 I thought it was pretty smart.)<\/span>Melissa stood at the table wiping tears from her cheeks.<\/span>And me?\u00a0 In that moment I didn’t feel so very far from Haiti.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It strikes me as surreal that Dats and I have been back from Haiti just three days.\u00a0 How easy and comfortable it is to slip back into the day to day life I am used to.\u00a0 But I discovered just over\u00a0a week ago that it was just as easy for me to slip back into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4427"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4436,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4427\/revisions\/4436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}