We're home!

Yes, we walked into our house here around 8:00 PM last evening, Tuesday! We left Crete Monday evening on a flight to Athens, had a short night (I stayed in the airport with luggage and Loretta, Joanne, and Kaitlyn had a room at an airport motel for the short night). We flew to Frankfurt at 6:00 AM, and then had our long flight to Chicago, where we left Joanne and Kaitlyn to fly home to Colorado while we flew to Sioux Falls where Craig met us and brought us home. Kaitlyn was a real trooper on the long trip and slept quite a bit, to the relief of her mother!
Our first order of business this morning was to get Loretta to the Freeman Hospital for her blood work and labs. As we suspected from her lack of energy the past weeks, the labs indicated she needed medical attention. So we saw our nephrologist in Sioux Falls today who recommended she spend some days in the hospital, at McKennan. They suspect a residual infection may still be affecting her body chemistry.
We are very relieved to have her in familiar medical care. As you probably picked up in earlier blogs, I was quite worried about Loretta since her hospitalization on Crete earlier in April. She could function, but wasn't really herself and didn't have much energy. When she was released from the Iraklion hospital, I asked the doctor if we should come home early, but he didn't think it was necessary.
In any case, I was able to finish the Sabbatical as planned, and did most of the things I had hoped to do these past two weeks. However, I am keenly aware that a Sabbatical experience is not worth Loretta's health. So we are grateful that she is in medical care now, and trust that nothing serious will be found and that she can be helped back to the health she had before we left.
I will be balancing care and concern for Loretta with getting back into my work here at the church, which I am very eager to do. I may still have some blogs in the next few weeks reflecting on aspects of our experience these past four months. For now, we are grateful to be home and for Loretta to be receiving the care she needs. Thank you for all your prayers and concerns for us these past weeks. It was meant so much to us.
Roy