Day Fourteen: Creating Home (Home is Where the Heart is)

My oldest daughter turned 18 yesterday!

For her birthday, she had several friends take her
for a day of celebration-
she went to lunch,
out for frozen yogurt,
for cupcakes (it was vegan day),
out to dinner,
and finally out for ice cream!!
REALLY, all this in ONE DAY!

She ran into an awesome boy,
Josh is his name
(no names have been changed to protect the innocent)
that we met last year on a cruise through the Caribbean!

Josh on the right, on excursion with our family

Running into him made me think of this amazing cruise-

we were with 5 of our 6 kids
and we had a blast.
Cruises are fun because you are on this big vacation with
a ton of strangers that become friends within a few days!

These four boys were just the mini testosterone my son needed after being with four sisters

My kids make friends fast on a cruise,

so within a few short hours (at least that's how it seemed)

we were in the middle of a TON of amazing kids

from all over the country.

We have stayed in touch with many of them for over a year,
but Josh randomly was from our little corner of the world,
so we have seen him a lot-
and he has become someone we all love dearly!

I'm sharing this, because as we are preparing to leave
another HOME,
I am continually finding myself amazed
that HOME has more to do with where your HEART is,
than where your linens are stored, your bed is made
or your dishes are washed!

For 7 days in June of 2010,
HOME was in the middle of the Caribbean on a
ship bound for 4 beautiful Islands!

It feels like HOME to me,
if there is laughter, joy and smiling faces all around!