Five under my roof last night.

Britta surprised us by asking her dad if she could come home last night, just for the night. He was heading back in to LaCrosse for the laser regatta anyway this morning, so it was a perfect time for this. We were all surprised as we had all agreed she shouldn't come home for at least 6 weeks, but it wasn't a homesick type visit, or a hanging-tightly-to-high-school visit; it was an exhausted, my-knee-hurts-and-I-can't-sleep-in-that-dorm visit. She tore her knees up in PT one morning, doing a "low crawl" while holding her M16 (!!) and the wounds hadn't closed because she wears jeans all day and they kept rubbing. Owwww!

Anyway, she was with us last night for supper (and to do some laundry) and we had such a great time. She actually SAT AND TALKED TO US like a real grown-up. She was helpful, she was polite, she was patient with her siblings and not whiny at all. Kind of amazing for 3 weeks!

She looks incredibly great. She has muscles all over the place. She told us she ran 3 miles while holding a 5-gallon jug of water the other day. I couldn't walk even one mile carrying a 5-gallon jug of water! That's about 40 pounds, plus the jug! Wow.

It's so good to have here and so good to know she is happy about going back to school. So much less stress. Praise the Lord.