Volleyball and Snow!!!!

God is definitely good. Al hamdoo lillah! The year before I left, the DC area got one of its biggest snowfalls in like 20 years. Since I've been here (like two weeks), it's snowed three times. And it's accumulated some each time. And then stayed for a while afterwards. I've missed the snow. Yesterday as Dawn and I stayed home due to cancelled church services, we ate snow cream (with an added twist, thanks to Dawn - powdered strawberry Qwik!!) and watched Alias all day while doing a puzzle. It was a wonderful Sabbath!

And to make it even better, I spent the previous evening playing my first volleyball match since April of 2003. And it felt _GOOD_. I'm still feeling it, but I don't care and can't wait for next week! I have missed volleyball _so_ much.

So, although I miss the daily group dinners, discussions of deep-ish things, and evenings of Alias-watching with our group, there are _definite_ advantages to being back in America.

And after three months, I've even put my hair in a pony-tail a couple of times without wincing. Mostly though...I just _really_ prefer it to be completely free. But still....there were two months in Amman where it was down a lot of the time, and three months here now. It was weird though. I spoke to part of our Hispanic congregation on Friday night and showed them how I'd do my hair and cover...and that felt...safe too. But it still felt good to let my hair back down. :)

But also al hamdoo lillah for the success of the elections yesterday!! I'm praying that I'll run across someone with a marked finger around here so that my Arabic can stop being a parlor trick. :)