It was a long week, capped by the longest Saturday in history. We have been waiting all week for Madi to return home from Italy.
On this trip she was gone just about half the time that she was gone for her semester abroad, and yet, we felt like it was forever.
It took some time to figure out, but we decided on the fact that, because she was alone, she was constantly in the forefront of our minds.
Was she safe? Did she arrive when and where she was supposed to? I don’t know if I would say that we were worried, but we were aware and constantly checking in.
Saturday evening and the time had arrived. Paul and I drove to the airport and paced around the baggage claim.
Then we saw her coming down the escalator in a big crowd of people. She made her way through, and finally she was home. We were hugging and just kind of collapsing against each other. Her luggage was lost, and she was as tired as I’ve ever seen her, but she was home!
Sunday dawned a beautiful day. After sleeping over 12 hours, Madi appeared and greeted both the day and my folks, who were almost as anxious to see her as we had been. After a lunch full of catching up, we all heard something and looked outside to see rain pouring down in buckets, and some pretty strong winds blowing through with the storm that had suddenly appeared.
As quickly as it blew up, it died down – however not before knocking the power out. The grandparents decided it was time for them to leave. I was so jealous.
After all the goodbyes, Paul, Madi, and I sat down in the living room and talked and talked and talked some more. We caught up on each other's lives: details that are difficult to share on a phone call.
After a while, we decided to go to our favorite restaurant for dinner. It had been a long time since we had been out to eat together. As we sat in the booth, a Trio, talking more and laughing hard – Madi stopped and said you know, I’m kind of glad the power went out today.
This blog post is short and late, but I’m glad that the power went out today too.
