My Home Sweet Home of Virginia

Blessed loves,Please forgive this short email. I am utterly exhausted and it'salmost midnight. I planned a weekend trip to my blessed hometown ofFt. Monroe, plus Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown, Monticello andCharlottesville for this weekend. We just got home. I was theplanner and the navigator for the entire 36 hour trip--my head isstill spinning. I ended up sleeping on a little chair at our hotelroom last night. I think everyone had fun (there were seven of us,all in a rented minivan) but I was just stressed trying to geteverywhere in the limited amount of time we had for each allottedactivity. Imagine a school teacher organizing and carrying out afield trip--that's what it was like.Anyway, I just can't tell you what it did for my soul to be at Ft.Monroe, a place full of so many memories and milestones. I walkedalong the sea wall, with the sun gleaming across the Chesapeake Bay,the wind spraying sea salted water and my hair everywhere. Tearswelled up and stained my happy, grateful cheeks. So much of who I amcomes from living on the blessed little peninsula of "Old PointComfort," an Army base that dates back to 1802. Besides 22 TidballRoad (the tiny house across from the marina where my family lived),the gazebo (where my dad would play concerts with the US ContinentalArmy Band while we sat on the green grass and picnicked), and therocky beaches (where I used to sing to the ocean at the top of mylungs and no one could ever hear me), the Fort is full of Civil Warand Army history. I found out on this trip that Harriet Tubman workedat the hospital for several months during the Civil War and that thefirst militia of black soldiers was organized for fighting there. Isthis one reason why I have so much love in my heart for blackAmericans? Being in Africa as a missionary made my love grow likefire. I don't know what my future holds--maybe I'll adopt Africanbabies some day--but it does not feel like coincidence that I haveopened my heart and mind to "black soul."I keep thinking about home....My heavenly home, my home in Orem, myhome in South Africa, my home at the Barlow Center, my home at Ft.Monroe. "Home I'll be" whenever I feel that deep sense of belongingand comfort. Words from a song I sang with the BYU choirs have beenfloating through my head this whole weekend, and I guess I share itwith you as my testimony of the role our Savior plays in getting usback to our Heavenly Father's many mansions..." 'Rise up, follow me,come away' is the call, 'with a love in your heart as the only song.There is no greater beauty than where you belong. Rise up. Followme. I will lead you home.'" He leads me. I love Him. Love, Sundy