Well, my family and I made it back from our little adventure refreshed and blessed! Our days were packed yet very enjoyable! We couldn't have asked for nicer weather: with the average temperature being about 22 degrees C, we had sun almost every day somewhere along the way, and when it rained (with the exception of the first Monday) we were travelling in the van!
Our accommodation, home away from home, was the best you could ask for when staying in the Veluwe: situated in the middle of the Netherlands, in the midst of bushes, farms, and heather fields, with a restored Windmill just down the road, a hardware store, grocery store, and other little shops just a short bike-ride away! Our hosts were amazing, very friendly and hospitable people; we very quickly developed a friendship with them! During any free moment we enjoyed visiting with them.
It was a pleasure spending time with Papa's Aunts and Cousins, some us kids met for the first time.
We also spent a lot of time with Pake's best friend from the military and his wife - they were the driving factor for us going! We went to church with them, went shopping, toured a couple towns, went to a glassblowing exhibit, went on a dinner cruise, spent time visiting, laughing, and eating, etc.! They made our stay very enjoyable!! It was hard to say "goodbye".
Another major highlight to our trip was a family my siblings and I made fast friends with on our former trip to the Netherlands, since then our friendship has and continues to grow! The recent time we shared together drew us closer than ever before - the only problem is that thousands of kilometres now spread us apart! We visited, cleaned the church with them, they translated the sermons on sunday so we could understand, us kids went to their school and helped the students practice their english, and we visited some more, it was so hard to part!
At the end of each day it was so refreshing to come back to little home, it was amazing how fast it became home to us! We all did not want to leave for the airport when we had to - it so felt like we were leaving more than half of ourselves behind! We extremely enjoyed our time spent in the Netherlands and were spiritually blessed and refreshed!!! We thank the Lord for His gift of this vacation and everything it entailed - for without His provision and all He is, it would never have been! May He be praised, exalted, and glorified!