My family finally came home from the Philippines late last Friday - with our five year old grandson Zeph, who has been the subject of this whole immigration process. All four of them are still so jet lagged that they are often awake in the middle of the night, and asleep during the day, which has put me off schedule a bit as well. And with the two little boys, they are not sleeping at the same time, so our home has been in time zone limbo.

Now add to that the recent hurricane - and we pray God's mercy, strength and safety for those now reeling from two hurricanes - we did leave our home in Fort Myers to go ride out the storm at my parents' place in Bonita Springs (just a little farther south). All is fine with us, we didn't even lose power other than some flickering off and on. No flooding for us, just the expected tree damage, etc. So we got off easy with these two, unlike Hurricane Ian two years ago. Bottom line is we are grateful - heading back to our home today - and sleeping in my own bed again.

Tomorrow - the last of the aftermath of our home flooding episode, which is that they will deliver our new couch, and with that, I want to say life gets back to normal, but actually this is going to be a completely new normal. I'm feeling much gratitude, including some for the inventor of noise cancelling headphones.

Thanks to all who have inquired as to how things are going. Life is an adventure, and you cannot plan for it - all you can do is discern what is the right thing to do in the moment, and try to be faithful in that moment.

Blessings to all!

• Jim