Closing Out the "A"

This is the hardest spot in my house to get a good picture. It's times like this where I either a) wish I were a professional photographer so I would know how to make this shot better, or b) am glad I'm not a professional photographer so it's okay to publish pictures of such mediocre quality in the name of capturing a memory.

As of February 4, Ben had been gone for 120 days--about four months. We're closing out the second letter on his countdown.

He's learning a lot, yet still retaining his "Ben-ness" in his letters (if you'd like to read a few of them, click here for his missionary blog). His letters are full of humor, photos, spiritual stories, typos, and personal growth.  I love reading them and check my email obsessively every Monday morning in the hopes that I can catch him while he's still online so we can message back and forth a few times.

A small section of wall between the kitchen and the bathroom used to belong to Tucker's mission pictures. (I checked my blog for pictures of his chart, and I unintentionally posted a picture of his chart when he'd been gone about the same amount of time. Here's a link to that post.)

Now it belongs to Ben. I walk by it many times a day and always take a second to remember my boy.

(Had to buy that llama at World Market. How did they know I would need one?)

If you look at the map, you can see a teeny red dot up in the northern part of his mission. That's where he's serving--Huanta, in the Ayacucho province.

Last week, we got our first physical letters from Peru, written in his trademark hieroglyphics. I spent much of one afternoon translating the irregular scrawl into language I understand. I loved reading them--eight or nine handwritten treasures shoved into two envelopes. Mail in Peru is unpredictable, I gather. It took those letters almost two months to find their way home to Arizona. I smiled and teared up a little as I read. Micah sobbed openly for a moment, then thought it might not be okay to cry because he misses his brother. I made sure he knew it was okay.

Miss that boy so much.

Love that boy so much.

Button-busting proud of him, too.

Hurrah for Israel.