Well, I have arrived in America once more and things are more or less the same as when I left. Sort of.

There is something that's changed inside of me. Something that at first was difficult to even see or put my finger on, but even now as I'm typing the muddy waters are becoming clear; clearer than the salty waters of the Adriatic in Valverde. Something's growing, becoming strong, increasing in potency...something is making me into the person I am meant to be.

Mom and I were talking the other day, in fact we've been talking every day since I've gotten back, and everything I say to her is new, different, things I never would have said to her before. And she responds to that. Words are coming out of my mother's mouth that I never expected to hear. No, not the kind of words you get sent to the principal's office for in middle school. They're the kind of words that I've always wanted to hear.

Almost everytime we talk now, we talk about faith.

"Craig and I are getting ready for the bible study this year. We're really excited about it," I hear myself say over coffee and doughnuts at Pierce's Pastries.

"What do you think you guys will study," she replies.

"Well I've been reading lots of great stuff in the Old Testament this summer. It's just such a great book! The whole thing!"

"Yeah I know, you've made me want to read it."

She wants to read it! Hey Mikey, she likes it! I've always wanted to be a witness to my mom in some way, and now it's finally going. It's finally moving into action. More importantly, it's moving into action with everyone else I meet.

It seems like everywhere I go I'm bringing up the topic of Jesus. What's more, is every conversation I have about Him is positive. It's about how people's walks are going, or what they love about the Lord. People are challenging me to find more and I know that I'm challenging them to find more. I just feel like I could sit down with anyone I meet now and talk for hours about the Lord of my life. The Man who has redeemed me from death. And the best part is, it all seems so real, so natural, so perfectly accurate. Nothing seems out of place or akward with any of it. Everything is simply falling into place.

I wonder what He's going to do for you today.

And I'm going to be home again! yay! So yeah, I paid to get on the internet to see if I could request a seat for my flight home...and yeah, it's not working. So I have 7 minutes to do a quick update. Tonight is my last night in Europe. I-m in London right now staying at the Atlantic Paddington Hotel. It's really more of a hostel than anything but it's called a hotel. Anywho, it's super huge and it's like a maze. it's so weird typing on an English keyboard! I've been using the Italian one for so long! ahhh! It's the worst trying to find the apostrophe! Maybe I will stop using contractions so that I do not have to worry about it.

So I was in the airplane today from Rome to London and for some reason I was looking at Earth and thinking about how many people probably think that it looks like a patchwork quilt from far away but I think it looks like Frakenstein's monster's skin. I don't really know WHY I think this. But I do. And as we started to land and get closer and closer to the ground, it looked more and more like his skin. All those random human body parts sewn together to make one hideous beast. Not a quilt at all, but that monster's skin. Interesting. It's like the face of the Earth is the face of Frankenstein's monster. (By the way, Frankenstein is the name of the doctor in the original book not the name of the monster. The monster has no name. hmmph!) It'd be really gross if it was like that though. Probably a lot more smelly than it is now. Intersting.