Michigan Revisited

At the end of June, as soon as the school year ended (literally less than 24 hours after the bell rang on the last day of school) the kids and I boarded a plane for the U.S.A.  We decided that we should begin our trip home with a few days in Michigan.  Luckily, my sister Jodi and her family are still there, so we were able to stay with them and visit our good - make that great - friends in MI.

Fortunately, our visit coincided with the youth conference weekend at our old stake.  Jessica was able to join the youth conference on Friday night and participate all day Saturday.  When Jess and I drove into the stake center parking lot, where the youth conference dance was taking place, we were welcomed by some of the teenagers from our ward who were on the lawn watching for her to come.  It was such a great welcome!  Inside the church, Jess quickly ditched me to go find all of her church friends, and I got to see a bunch of my friends too, who were there chaperoning or whatever at the youth conference.  I just loved seeing the faces that have starring roles in my memories of our time in Michigan!

As I was caught up in greeting and hugging, my friend Brian caught my attention and gestured over to the center of the gym, where Jessica was standing in the middle of the dance holding hands with three of her friends as they swung their arms in time to the music.  Seeing Jess surrounded by those girls she has known for years, and obviously feeling like she "belonged", made me immediately want to break down and cry.  Our move to Germany has been very hard for Jessica, especially at church.  She went from being a part of an exceptional group of young women in our Michigan ward to feeling like an outsider in a very small, German-speaking Young Women group.  She told me once that every time the girls in our Germany ward speak German to each other, she feels like they are talking about her because she can't understand.  While my 40-year-old brain knows that is ridiculous, I remember how fragile a 13-year-old brain is, and I can understand her insecurities.  It breaks my heart now to see how miserable she is at the youth activities in Berlin, when she used to enjoy them so much in Michigan.  So, seeing her restored to her "comfort place" among her friends in MI was very emotional for me.  As I left the stake center that night, winding my way through groups of my old seminary students and friends, all smiling and glad to be together, I kept thinking we were absolutely CRAZY to ever leave this place!

That thought replayed over and over again over the next three days as I had the chance to visit friends, go to the good old Clarkston ward, and just drive around our old stompin' grounds.  I loved meeting friends over Diet Cokes and Mexican food to catch up on all the events that have happened in the year since we left.  It was great to sit in sacrament meeting and look around the chapel at everyone I'd grown to love in the six years we'd lived there.  I was even surprised to see how natural my friend Matt looked in his new seat as the bishop.  I especially loved sitting in Relief Society and yelling - reverently, of course - the answers to the game of Password that was part of the lesson that day. 

After church on Sunday, we drove to our Waterford house (how many thousands of times did we make that drive?) and the kids and I kept exclaiming over the little things we passed along the way - the phone store we watched get built and wondered what it would be, the ice cream shop that is never open, Pepper's old preschool, the road to Jessica's middle school, the airport, the restaurant that always goes out of business, the paved road that used to be dirt - and everything seemed way more magical than it ever had when we lived there.  When we got to our house, I was a little nervous to go inside.  It felt weird to stand on the porch and ring the doorbell.  There is a cute family renting our house while we are in Germany, and I'd asked them if we could come over to get some things out of our boxes in the basement.  Erin was nice enough to let us walk through the house and look around.  It was strange how unfamiliar it felt now that it is another family's home.  But, we had many great moments in those walls, and I am glad to see another family adding to them.

Being so soon off the plane from Germany, I was struck over and over again by how much SPACE there is in America.  The area where we lived in Michigan is pretty spread out, and it is common to drive along neighborhoods with what seems like miles of green lawn surrounding the houses.  And it is all so open!  Big, wide roads with plenty of room for both directions of traffic - what a luxury!  Driveways and front yards that are not closed off by gates - so friendly!  Parking lots that allow for more than six inches between cars - brilliant!  I kept thinking I felt like I could BREATHE again! 

Like I said, during our four days in Michigan, I kept thinking how crazy we were to leave.  Being there again, among some of the best friends I will ever have, felt like heaven on earth.  It occurred to me on this visit that I never truly appreciated what a blessing it was to be there.  I spent a good part of our time living there wishing we could be "home" in Utah, and now after a year away, I would give my right arm to be "home" in Michigan. 

As I thought this, I told myself that next time I move, I will be better at appreciating where we are.  Then I remembered that I have moved, and I'm doing a lousy job at appreciating Berlin.  Sometimes I think I am just biding my time until our "Germany phase" is done, and then I will be happy again.  Dumb, I know.  Hopefully, now that I've had my little epiphany, I can try to change my attitude.  I have a feeling it will take some prayer, but I can do that.

I am so glad that we took a few days to revisit Michigan before we headed off to Utah for the summer.  Thank you to Jeff and Jodi for spoiling us rotten and introducing me to Rock Band and unleashing the "Sister Spice" in me.  I am sad to think I'll never pull up to your Grand Blanc house again. 

Michigan is a magical, magical place.