The Johnslingtons

You guys, Fiji is SO beautiful. And I mean, obviously. But it’s not just the lush jungle vegetation and the impossibly blue (and impossibly warm!) ocean water and the crazy sunsets (really, how does the sky even get that color?)—it’s how welcome we’ve felt here. Every step of the way since we landed—at the airport, in the taxi, on the ferry dock, arriving at the hotel—we’ve been greeted so warmly with “bula bula!” (hello/welcome) and, most wonderfully, “welcome home!”

At the risk of sounding extremely cheesy, that latter greeting made me a little misty. It might have been the long travel day or the sleep deprivation or the fact that I’m always pretty much on the verge of tears, but being welcomed home to a place that’s so far away from home and so different from home is surprisingly moving. Especially now, in the very early days of being away from home for such a long stretch, when it’s been so long since we’ve left our home city much at all, it makes me feel so happy and hopeful. That wherever we go in the world there will be wonderful humans to greet us and a lovely spot on the map to call home—if only for a little while.