The End

Greetings! I'm sure, given the recent dearth of activity on this here blog, many of you have given up on me and hearing of any of my adventures ever again. I've been meaning to write a final post to wrap up the year, but the past two weeks have slipped away from me, being far too full of change and tears and reunions and perfection and boggled minds for me to sit down and finish this. I've also been putting it off because I'm not sure what to say. As I've bemoaned to you before, it's near impossible to turn the events and emotions and craziness and delights of the past year (as well as the whole coming back thing) into a small collection of letters and words. The chronicle I've written throughout the past year has attempted to do so and only partially succeeded, so you can imagine how little I can hope to convey in this one last blog post. But let me start with the heaping amounts of gratitude I feel towards all of you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for being part of my life. Whether you have been diligently following this blog all year, or supported me financially, or have been praying for me and the Jacksons in the past few months, you all are truly what made the whole thing possible. The past year has honestly changed my life. I learned things about myself and other people and God and then more about myself. And though I know it's a cliche, even though I went to Cameroon to help the Jacksons, I ended up getting more than I gave, and learning more than I taught. I loved living with the Jackson family. I loved trying new things and having adventures I know I couldn't find anywhere else. I loved looking back and seeing how I'd grown, and seeing how Sarah and Katelyn and Lum and everyone had grown as well. People would talk to me, in awe that I had actually gone to Africa for missions, as if it were some big grandiose thing, and I suppose on some level it was. But to us, it was honestly just living life. Living, learning, loving, growing. Life is the same wherever you go.

But I do want to go back. I want to go riding with Katelyn, cook with Lum, tell jokes to Fadi, "play" puzzles with Maimu, sit and talk with Carol, follow Chris and Yunu up a mountain, even go on a run with Sherlock. :) I want to go back and take people here with me, so they can experience beautiful loud Cameroon, the place that's now part of me. I'm extremely jealous of Chris, Katelyn, Karissa, Jonathan, and everyone else who is going back there for the summer, or at least part of it. But I know that I will return someday, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Aaaaaaand now I've really run out of things to say, and so with no idea how to finally wrap up my blog, I will just say thank you again and goodbye. It's been grand.