It’s six o’clock when I wake up this morning. The sun is rising and it looks like it’s gonna be a beautiful day. Better than the clouds, rain and snow of yesterday. The lights are still off in my family’s house, so I sit down in the back yard with a book. I haven’t been online for almost 24 hours and somehow that makes me a bit restless. I expect some messages from clients and I know they’re waiting on me. I forgot the Wi-Fi passwords here, so I can’t go online and just have to accept that. It also makes me aware of how attached I am to being online and I’m glad I don’t have internet now. I think it is better to get used to being offline from time to time, also when I’m back home. It’s easier to live in the moment when you don’t have internet. I grab my book and start reading in a rocking chair that’s standing in the yard behind my grandparents home. I remember from the last time I was here that they usually get op around nine, so that means I have quite some reading time before they are awake.
Since it’ll be a while, I decide to do some groceries and drive to Walmart. On my way back I stop at Starbucks and meet one of the children of the family there. I think by now almost all of them work there. She doesn’t act really surprised to see me, as if it’s normal for me being here. Maybe it is. Helena is a city, but feels like a town. Another barista also recognizes me from two years ago and people on the street here greet me as I walk by. I drive back home, but my grandparents aren’t awake yet, so I continue reading in the rocking chair with my coffee in hand and then make breakfast with the groceries I just got. It’s nice here. You can hear birds everywhere and once in a while you hear the typical sound of an American train in the distance. The anticipation of surprising someone is really exciting. Time seems to go very slow and patiently I wait on my grandparents to wake up.
Just after eight o’clock my grandpa comes down in the living room. He’s reading the newspaper as he usually does in the morning, but he hasn’t discovered me in the backyard yet. It’s nice to just watch him and suddenly I realise that this is maybe how God looks at us. Just seeing what we’re going to do today, us often not being aware that He is around, while He is waiting for us to discover Him. When I see my grandpa walking to the front door I surprise him outside. His face is priceless, he is visibly happily surprised to see me. I greet him with a big hug and then show him my car in which I’ve camped the last couple of weeks. While we talk he still shows surprised. This was so worth the wait outside. After catching up with each other he goes to their furniture store to do some work. My grandma opens a window and I wish her a wonderful good morning. Her surprise is just as big and with a big smile she tells me that I’m being naughty for not having told them that I’d come a few days earlier. Another big bug follows and then we both go to the furniture store as well. They moved to a new location this year and it’s nice to see the new store, it’s much bigger than their last place. Grandma shows me around the store and then has some work to do, so I sit down to update my blog. Jon and Becky, their daughter and sun in law are there as well and it’s great to see them again too. We stay at the store for a while and then drive back home. Grandma makes me a second, typical American, breakfast: bacon and eggs and toast with coffee. I love it how she makes that, it’s one of my favourite breakfast meals, probably for a big part because she makes it for me.
The rest of the afternoon we hang out at home. Grandpa and grandma are watching a tv program while I catch up with my e-mail. I also play a game of Scrabble with grandma at the table in the backyard. We usually play on our phones, but it’s much more fun in person. I think we’ll play more board games in the coming days. In the evening we have a nice dinner in the backyard. It’s the first time of the year, grandpa tells me. We also watch our favorite show Last Man Standing on tv and laugh a lot. It’s great to be back here and I’m looking forward to spending the coming days together.
