Spain

"The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain."
Can you name that movie?
So the Farmer's trip to Spain and Morocco has come and gone. Two weeks without my husband was enough. I am so glad he is not in the military - although he tried that at one time in his life, long before I ever met him.
But this trip had nothing to do with the military, or with agriculture, like when he got to go to Austria earlier in the year. Yes, 2009 was a big traveling year for this guy. (I'm thinking 2010 will be my year! Italy? Ireland?)
(And no, it didn't rain at any time while they were there.)
So he left the house at 3 in the morning on a Sunday and he returned exactly 2 weeks later at 3 in the morning on a Sunday. Whoa!
He met the missionaries our church supports over in Spain, and had a great time with them. Thankfully the Spanish he learned came flooding back and he was able to manage the language flowing around him - that and the other 6 people he went with knew Spanish pretty well too.
They met some wonderful children, had their eyes opened to different cultural practices and a different religion's practices. They also saw the power of prayer at work as they served the people there. It moved me to tears a few times when I read his emails to us at home.
The people in a nearby country drop their children off in Spain and hope they can fend for themselves until they are 18. At that point the child becomes a citizen and has access to whatever that entails. But getting to that point often requires things we couldn't imagine for our children, much less living the whole time without parents or family.
I gave the Farmer full permission to bring home an orphan or two when he came back, but unfortunately he couldn't.
The Farmer got to use his face painting skills and balloon-animal tying skills a few times. He walked and walked the city of Melilla; he helped with construction and painting of a church that is as big as our front room. He tried cliff-diving. He made new friendships. He ate new foods and saw old Roman ruins. And he came back a changed man. But the same man.