A year ago today, we drove across South Dakota with our belongings and each other, eagerly seeing the miles slip away behind us, each mile bringing us one mile closer to home. The closer we got, the more eager we became. Finally, Rapid City’s lights were appearing and disappearing on the horizon, finally we were headed south down Hwy. 79. Finally, we were turning west onto Hwy. 40, with the little town of Hermosa flickering sleepily in the night. Finally, bend after bend after bend of Hwy. 40 brought us up to the Adrian family mailbox, the most important landmark in that neck of the woods. We rattled down the red dirt road, and rattled up the hill to Grandma’s.

We were home.

And here we have been, for a year. And how much has happened in that year! What a year it has been! In some ways, it feels like just yesterday that we were unloading the moving truck, setting up our cabin, and vising Southern Hills Bible Church. In other ways, it feels like…well, like exactly a year. And in other ways, it feels like eternity since we moved here.

This place has so long been lodged in my imagination, in my heart, that the transition here seems almost to have never happened.

There was no need for transition. This was always home.