I’m laying in a hotel bathtub in North Carolina, and will head back to the beautiful, cool northland tomorrow.

What a trip this has been! Full of surprises and affirmation. In many ways I think it has been a life changing trip.

I’ve reconnected with my history through spending time with my sweet mother and father, through the house and its hopeful future. I’m bringing pieces of it home.

Raymond has connected with his cousins, met his grandparents and my brother and sister-in-law who welcomed us with such warm hospitality and a surprise birthday party.

It is bittersweet.

My mom told me she doesn’t know how much time she has left. None of us do. All we can do is live this moment the best we can.

Every moment.

I’m bringing furniture back to Minnesota. Much of it is older than I am, and was part of my childhood. There is a table made by my maternal grandfather, and there is his dresser. I have the bowl that my father walked past every time he walked through their dining room when he was a boy. His parents received it as a wedding gift in 1925.

U Haul’s biggest trailer couldn’t contain all the pieces I wanted to bring.

And then there are the photographs my parents took of my early life… photos their parents took of them. My history encrypted in slides and prints.

So many pictures!

And the African things. And my grampa’s printing press.

It’s been a whirlwind trip, and it is half over.

We will have to empty the current stuff out of the house to make room for the new stuff, which is the old stuff.

It will make me think of my parents and my grandparents, and I will say to my kids, “your great grandfather made this table.”

Like the day Luuka asked, and I told him, “Your great great grandfather painted that picture.”