home is where the heart is.

I've lived here for over six months now. Can you believe that? It still blows my mind.

I recently went to Naples for a week, which is the longest I've been away from Rome since moving here. It was fun visiting friends there and eating my weight in pizza and helping with a kid's camp and relaxing in gorgeous Sorrento and exploring the ruins of the tragically destroyed ancient city of Pompeii. 

But while I was there, something strange happened.

I felt homesick. For Rome.

Now that may seem extreme, especially considering that six months is no lifetime and obviously my hometown and family will always hold a special place in my heart. But I think since college, "home" has become a bit more spread out for me. For four years, Alabama was my "home away from home," then I left part of my heart in Florida after working there for a summer, then after graduation my friends dispersed throughout the South. So I miss and "feel homesick" for a lot of places and people.

But "home" isn't so much about a location as it is about the people you love that live there. 

Yesterday I watched Finding Nemo (in Italian…it was language practice, purely language practice…), and there's a scene near the end when Dory says, "I look at you, and I can feel it…I look at you and…I'm home." I think that's when a place and the people in it become home…when you feel that way.

So being away from Rome for a little while made me really miss our friends here…and I was so indescribably happy and thankful when, within hours of taking the train back, we heard from almost all of our friends about hanging out in the following days. 

Yay!!! We have friends!!! When you live in a foreign country where, a few months ago, nothing was familiar and most things were intimidating, this is a substantial victory. In my opinion.

So to my friends in Rome, I love you and I'm grateful to have you in my life!

Not that I love you any less, friends and family "across the pond." I love and miss you deeply. 

What a blessing it is to have people to love! And what a challenge, too, at times. What a concept, huh? Love. I think it's safe to say it's something everyone wants. I mean, I'm no expert, and I'm not one to wear exceptionally large floral headbands or round sunglasses. But…"all you need it love" and "the greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return."

And I'm not even talking about "romantic" love, because it's so much more than that. Loving a friend or family member is just as much of a joy (and challenge) as loving a significant other. Love is work. Love isn't just a feeling with a visual equivalent of pink bubbles or butterflies. Love does. And it's worth working for. It's worth fighting for. 

"Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." -1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Now, if that's not one of the toughest standards to live by, I don't know what is. Because who of us isn't often impatient and unkind with our loved ones? I'm so guilty of letting my pride keep me from apologizing, I'm often rude and self-interested, I get mad and I have trouble with that whole "forgive and forget" thing.

But hey, I'm only human. We're all so flawed. We're all "fixer uppers." (This is the part where I quote yet another Disney movie and promise you that that's not all I do with my time…). There's a song in Frozen that says, 

"We're not saying you can change him, 'cause people don't really change.
We're only saying love's a force that's powerful and strange.
People make bad choices when they're mad or scared or stressed,
but throw a little love their way, and you'll bring out their best."

So love. Life-changing stuff. I also honestly really like the overall message in Frozen. "Only an act of true love will thaw a frozen heart." And it wasn't any kiss from some handsome guy she barely knew that did the trick. It was (SPOILER ALERT) the selfless, sacrificial act of saving her sister's life. Olaf even says (should I feel ridiculous for quoting an animated snowman? #noshame), "Love is putting someone else's needs before yours."

That's good stuff right there. Biblical stuff. I could quote Disney movies all day, but all I really know about love, I learned from the One who created it (the one who said, "It is not good for man to be alone," and so created Eve for Adam). The One who created me.

The Bible talks about love a whole lot. (So many good verses. I cannot pick…) It has a lot to say about God's love for us and about how we should love others. The type of sacrificial love that's just plain tough.

"God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." -Romans 5:8

Because of this, we have hope. Hope for a love I could never deserve, and the potential for loving others like He does. 

"And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." -Romans 5:5

I'm FAR from perfect in the "loving people well" department, and I know I've hurt people (intentionally or not) and I have so often been self-seeking. I can only pray He continues to make me look less like myself and more like Him. There's no one else I'd rather resemble.

So now that you've ingested this admittedly strange combination of Disney quotes and Scripture references, I'll leave you with this one:

"I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." -Ephesians 3:17-19