Hello!
So this is officially my LAST journal entry! Surprise! I am back in Kansas! For good. Yes, really. (Well, at least until Thursday.)

The Peace Corps was wonderful. I loved the country, the people, my job, the language, all of it. But, my life had been pretty crazy in the months before I left. I applied to the Peace Corps in September, started dating Klint in October, a short time later we got engaged, and a week after that I was in Bulgaria. My life seemed to be happening so quickly! I spent the last month in Bulgaria trying to figure out exactly how to balance these new priorities I had in my life. Serving in the Peace Corps had been something I wanted to do all through college. But, after I met someone that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, it sort of stopped making sense to me to be experiencing this without him.

It was a difficult decision to make. Like I said, I loved being there. Even more, I knew had made a commitment to the Peace Corps and there was a school that was looking forward to having a volunteer. But, I had been there long enough to know that I wasn’t going to be able to maintain the same relationship with my fiance from the other side of the world for 27 months. I knew that my heart couldn’t completely be in both places at the same time. I had to ask myself what the least selfish decision would be in this situation, because it seemed that no matter what I did, I would be letting someone down. Looking at it from that perspective, I knew that the right decision was to come back and be with Klint.

I was so grateful to the Peace Corps staff for being so understanding. They told me that they were glad that I was going home for such a happy reason! My language trainer came to me and told me she thought I was making the right decision, which was comforting to hear after making a tough decision. They only further strengthened one of the things that made it hard to leave in the first place – that the Peace Corps is an amazing organization full of wonderful people.

So here I am! I got back into town on Thursday night, much to the surprise of all of my family! Klint of course knew that I was on my way back, but I decided to have a little fun with my family and not tell them ahead of time. Becky picked me up at the airport, and we first stopped in Lawrence to say hi to my sister and Steve. I think they were more confused than anything. We got to my parents house about 11 pm, and it was great to see the look on their face! My dad’s jaw dropped and he just stared at me for a while. I couldn’t get him to say anything for a while! I’ve actually had a lot of fun the past couple days seeing people’s reactions!

So, this week I am headed out to North Carolina to look for an apartment and a job. But, I will certainly be back and forth because we now have a wedding to plan. Since Klint’s schedule with school is so tight, we really can’t plan anything for next year without taking a risk of him not being able to come (minor detail). We don’t really want to wait, because we will be moving when Klint is assigned to a team next summer, and we need to be married by then for all sorts of housing and financial purposes. So, we are trying to figure something out for either the Saturday after Thanksgiving or the Friday before Christmas. I know everyone will hate me for scheduling ANOTHER thing to make that time even more stressful, but we are low on options, especially trying to book things on such short notice. Hopefully you all will come!

So, that’s it for me. I can’t say enough good things about the Peace Corps, but now that I am back, I know that I definitely have made the right decision. Klint and I think that maybe one day we might go back and do the Peace Corps together – and actually stay for 27 months this time! And as for Bulgaria...I am really thankful that my host family has a family friend that speaks English, because body language and gestures don’t translate very well on the phone or in letters. I hope to keep in touch with all of them as they were so great to me. Maybe I’ll continue studying Bulgarian on my own??? That would take some motivation. I really do like learning languages, though, so it’s a possibility! We might actually get back there sooner that I thought, though, as Klint might end up on a team stationed in Europe. I told my host family that I would bring Klint over to meet them if we ever get the chance. We will see!

Thanks for reading my journal, everyone – I hope you forgive me for cutting it short! I have my old cell phone back with the same number, so give me a call sometime! I hope to see you all soon!