A Michigan Summer

A couple weeks ago we touched back down in Lima after spending almost 3 months in the United States. We’re happy to be back at home but, at least for me, it always takes a few days for my heart to catch up.

Double masks and face shields were required at the eerily empty Lima airport

We originally planned to visit family and friends closer to Christmas in 2020 but due to an abundance of COVID cases and not being able to get vaccinated, we made the hard decision to postpone our trip to the summertime where hopefully positive cases would die down as more and more people were vaccinated. Thankfully Billy and I were able to get vaccinated right at the beginning of our trip – a privilege we do not take lightly as we are still not eligible to be vaccinated in Peru.

And, since 95% of our work and Will’s school is virtual right now we were able to continue being in ministry – just with a different Zoom background from Billy’s parents’ house in Livonia!

Mother’s Day celebration with Will’s class

Billy completed the week-long TBRI (Trust-Based Relational Intervention) training with the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development and became a TBRI practitioner. This will be instrumental in Paths of Hope’s ministries working with children’s homes and churches here in Peru. Using the principles of TBRI, we will be able to help the staff and mentors navigate working with children who have experienced trauma.

Our time in the States was filled with outdoor dinners, Christmas and birthday celebrations, playgrounds, cousin dance parties (per Will’s request), zoos, hikes in the woods, boat and tube rides, trips to Target and Costco (Will was happy the samples came back!), hours of swimming in the pool, lake and beach and lots and lots of ice cream. We loved the long, sunny days and added many hours towards our 1000 Hours Outside goal for this year.

We spent time with our families out west hiking the Zion, Bryce Canyon and Grand Canyon National Parks, boating and tubing in northern Indiana, and swimming along the northern Michigan coast.

We hugged friends we hadn’t seen in almost 2 years, went to a Tigers game and were able to attend the wedding of a long-time friend who 8 years ago traveled to Peru to stand up in our wedding.