Stateside!

Day 10 was spent shopping and finishing up our tour of Dublin. By the time we got back to our room, and saw the damage our shopping had caused and the new dilemna of how to get all that stuff back home..we had a few hours of work ahead of us to be ready for our flight out yesterday. We've been struggling with good internet connections throughout our trip and the wifi in Dublin was weak at best. By the time we finished our packing we thought we'd update the blog one more time. But that weak internet connection and the late hour found us just wanting a few hours sleep!
Our taxi arrived at 5:30 yesterday morning and we were dropped off at the Dublin airport at 6 am.
We saw the country fade away as we left the ground..and knew we were only saying goodbye for a time.
It wasn't as difficult as we had expected it to be. Mainly because our family needed us and we needed them. But also because we surprisingly did not love Dublin. Oh, we liked shopping and riding around the top of the double decker bus with the cool Dublin air whipping at us! But for us...it was the least Irish place we had been! It reminded us more of Chicago or New York. Very culturally diversive, a thousand streets and shops. Intermingled with history, to some it would be a delight. But we had fallen in love with the farmlands. The barren mountains and passes. The rivers, shepherds paths and the sounds of the sea. Dublin for us was a place to tour and take note, but not a place that spoke to our hearts. Having ended our trip there it probably worked as a barrier to what might have been pain if we had seen the beautiful Irish side falling away from our airplane window. It was much easier to say goodbye to the city..I only wish we would have stood and looked a little longer
when we last stood at the top of a mountain looking out and down into a patchwork valley.
Our flight home was much easier than our flight there. Shannon is still heading home as she is driving from Michigan to West Virginia today.
We are not quite finished with this blog quite yet. We still have video and pictures to add. We hope to keep it alive a little longer.

Our second day there, we stood on the Cliffs of Moher and saw a woman named Tina singing and playing her harp. These are the words of one of her songs:

I wander o'er green hills and dreamy valleys,
and find a peace no other land can know
I hear the birds make music fit for angels
and see the rivers laughing as they flow.

And then into a humble shack I wander
My own sweet home and tenderly behold
The folks I love around the turf fire gathered
On bended knee, their rosary is told.

But dreams dont last though dreams are not forgotten
When we are back to stern reality
And though they pave the footways here with gold dust
I still would choose the island of Inisfree.

I still would choose the island of Inisfree.


Tomorrow we will add some of our favorites as well as "moments" we will never forget!
But for now, for us, the dream has ended. It is all committed to memory now, some words written in journals and blogs, captured forever in pictures and videos.
I've already bookmarked some seaside cottages I want to take my loved ones to. Shannon has already started planning places Dave will love. We've not been home for 24 hours and already we are counting the time until we return.
It will be beautiful and meaningful and feel like a homecoming I'm sure. But traipsing across the country with just my sister..that was a dream, a dream realized and now a memory. I'm so very thankful to my family for allowing me this time. I'm so thankful to Dave and boys for letting Shannon go. I'm in awe of a God who has created such beauty. His majesty knows no end. He is now and forever Almighty and worthy of our praise!

Thank you for following. Dont remove from your bookmark quite yet! We will post again tomorrow when the fog of jet lag has lifted a little!! xoxoxxo