The Hos at home

As I promised... one last post on "Hos in Ireland". I realized this blog has a limited life as long as we keep leaving Ireland. Maybe we should do something about that. Well, I did, I created a new blog. The "Hos at Home" blog. That way, no matter where we are, you can always find us! For now, we're in Ohio.

Golf tryouts were held, tournaments have started. Lisa is preparing for a weekend with incoming freshman in the woods as the "Kitchen Mom" for Fresh X (a wilderness program provided by Student Involvement and Ryan Carlson, Director of Wilderness Ministries). Lisa camping? Seriously, Ireland must have changed me in some way, or at least made me more comfortable with outside toilets.

Come on by our new home at hosathome.blogspot.com. We'd love to have you sit and stay a while!

God Bless,
Luong and Lisa

Home...?

Sunset at Corrymeela

The Hos are no longer in Ireland... we're back in Ohio. It's truely bittersweet. My body and my heart are still in Ireland (we're in bed by 10 and up at 6). I don't think we could have anticipated what a challenging transition it would be. Pulling into Delaware, Luong exclaimed "My stomach hurts! I have never connected physical pain with emotional pain before." I needed to remind him and myself, that we are blessed with wonderful lives, but we also felt like we were leaving so much behind.

The expeirence was a glimpse into something bigger. Through friendships, volunteering, the scenery, and the culture we learned how vast the world is, and how limited our lives are in good ol' Delaware. Visions were cast, dreams were dreamed, and some plans have been made. The challenge is to go for it and not get "bogged" (no pun intended) in our routines and comforts back home.

The first vision is to keep giving our lives away in our free time. God has given us both wonderful careers in which we have summers off. I would hope we never spend another one in Delaware (which means mom and dad may be dog sitting for some time to come ;-). Next summer we have plans to return to Ireland with a group of students from Linworth United Methodist Church in Columbus. They are wanting to do a 3 week study into the conflicts and reconciliation work in N. Ireland. After that, many of you know we have had the vision to adopt. We are starting the process of picking an agency with the hopes of traveling to China in 2008 to adopt. Finally, it is Luong's dream to teach English in China, so we are looking into opportunities for the coming years to spend a summer in China teaching. We would appreciate your prayers for each of these endevors.

Thanks to all who have visited the blog and commented. It's been a great way to stay connected. I will be back for a final post in the coming days with a link to our picture site.

God bless!
the hos (in Ohio)

Last Day...

It's our last night in Ireland. There are really no words to describe how we feel right now. Not ready to travel, not ready to leave, but somehow ready to be home. In many ways, we feel home, just minus a few important fixtures... Family, friends, Woody, ice cubes, our own kitchen... ya know :-).

If I had the words to describe our emotions, I would, but I don't. So here are some images of what we're leaving behind.

Luong hitting a ball off Fairhead on the Atrim Coast. A dream come true. "Hey, Scotland- FORE!"













The River Liffey in Dublin














Our friends, the Stockmans, in Ballycastle.














Glendalough, County Wicklow

The presence of God, everywhere...

and of course, SHEEP!

Americans sighted in Dublin... Ireland!

Late breaking news... there are Americans in Dublin! Actually there are Romanians, Russians, Africans, and Chinese too! You may have a hard time finding any Irish. Dublin is bursting with tourist and new arrivals of immagrints from Eastern Europe and Africa. I can only imagine what New York looked like 100 years ago. Of course, there wouldn't have been a McDonald's or Burger King (there are two of each on the same street here!).

We arrived yesterday and have walked ourselves to death. We're trying to save some $$ at the end of trip, so we've been mostly window shopping. The $$ is stronger against the Euro than the pound (up north), but we still have Luong's green fees (over $200) to pay on Saturday. No complaints though, the smile on his face is worth the $200!

I'm really sorry about the lack of pictures. I'm not sure if it's our connection or Blogger, but I'm having problems loading them. I will try and create a link to an online photo site and post it asap. Check back later!

We're meeting our buddy Mike (an OSU student studing in England this summer) tomorrow to tour the Guinness factory. Luong had so much fun at the Bushmills Wiskey tour, I can only imagine what tomorrow will be like :-). Guys, you know how much I love Ireland, well Guinness has made Luong an even BIGGER fan of Ireland than I am!

Love you all so much, and we really cannot imagine being home in just a few days!

The Hos

Back in Ballycastle

Blogging is challenging at this point. We left Corrymeela last Friday and headed off for Belfast. Lovely time at the cleanest hostel I have ever stayed in. Unfortunately, it had a bit too much taste of the culture. Our room overlooked the Royal Pub (an infamous Loyalist bar) the night before a big parade. The people spread out into the street most of the night, then the street cleaners started sucking up the bottles at 5:00 AM. Rough night.

Marian (from OWU) stayed in the hostel with us, so we went exploring in the rain on Saturday, our first real taste of Irish weather. We visited the Botanical gardens and the Ulster museum. Great time actually. The parades started in the afternoon (parade season runs all summer here, the ones on Saturday were just a smaller version of the ones we saw on July 12th). While walking around we ran into Eileen and her boyfriend Mike (Eileen was a volunteer at Corrymeela with us, from Boston). She finished the week before us and was staying in Belfast for the week. We literally just ran into them on the street. Thus supporting my Brake genes- I can run into someone I know in any city in the world! (two hours earlier we ran into a woman we met at the cafe the night before!- crazy. Anyway, we spent Saturday evening with Marian, Eileen, Mike, Katie, Pauline (two more volunteers from Belfast who we phoned to meet up with us). It was quite a good time.

Speaking of running into folks, the gentleman who sat down next to me at the library computer bank, is a fellow named Ken who I meet earlier in the month just walking around Ballycastle. So we're back in Ballycastle. Staying with our friends the Stockmans. Steve stayed with us when he spoke at OWU the last two years. We are so glad to be staying with him and to finally meet his family! Yesterday we went to the Bushmills distillery, where Luong sampled everything they put in front of him :-). I enjoyed a Diet Coke ;-).

Tomorrow we head down to Dublin for a couple days. I'll try and update there and add some pictures if I can!

Take care,
The hos