Adieu Switzerland!

Well, the time has come for us to leave Zurich and head home; we fly out tomorrow morning! We had a bittersweet time today saying goodbye to our awesome friends here, and we are so thankful for all of them. It's been quite an adventure, one we surely won't forget!! I feel so blessed for getting to see so many beautiful places with Michael and Jake, and I'm glad we'll have the blog and our pictures to help us remember everything. I want to thank Michael for making this summer away possible for our family. And since I have loved blogging so much, I do plan to continue it once we get back, so stay tuned for more from the Settles!!

It seems like in the last few weeks Jake has grown tremendously, namely in his ability to communicate with more complete thoughts and sentences. Every day we are surprised with something that he reveals he is able to say or that he understands! His charming, energetic personality seems to blossom more each week. Most recently he is saying "Sorry, it's my fault", "Umm", and "Yesss" (instead of his precious "yeah-yeah"), and "Thank you sooo much" and "Have a good day, see you later!". And everyone here is already familiar with Jake's notorious "No way!" He loves to throw himself down and say he got hurt and needs to go to the doctor with a huge grin on his face. He also has become an avid story teller, and always leaves Michael and me cracking up! Tonight he told me a bedtime story about a family of T-rexes who got in a fight with a Long Neck (Brontosaurus), and they had to go to the doctor for their booboos! He now can sing his ABC's and Take Me Out to the Ballgame, which is pretty cute! He loves to wrap his arms around Michael and me and pull us all together for a group hug and kiss. I know he's taller and the Swiss haircut makes him look SO much older, which made me cry for a whole day when he got it. And with all the soccer and baseball he's played this summer, I must say his skills are impressive! Lately when he gets into mischief and I ask him what he's doing, he adamantly blames it on Michael, haha!! He did just that earlier this evening when we found him on top of the bookshelf in his room trying to get his Italy soccer shirt that I had laid out for the plane ride tomorrow! And when I go to brush his hair after his bath, he tries to weasel out of it and tell me that Daddy already did it, even though its all disheveled! The sweetest thing is he has learned his bedtime prayer and can say it now with his hands clasped: "Dear Jesus, I love you. Amen." It will be so much fun getting home and seeing Jake reunited with all our family, and I know they will be thinking just what Michael and I are; that he's growing up way too fast and is just too sweet and funny for words!

When leaving such a beautiful place, its natural to think about what you'll miss, and although I'm really looking forward to getting home to Texas, there are many things here which are hard to leave behind. Zurich will always be near and dear to our hearts and feel like a home away from home to us. There was a sadness in my heart today when looking at the lake and mountains and knowing it was the last time I'd see them. They are just so beautiful. Therefore, here is my "what I will miss list"...

1. The mountains
2. Lake Zurich
3. Our favorite park by the water, Arboretum
4. Fruit and citrus trees everywhere
5. Wild Hydrangeas all over the place
6. The low humidity
7. No mosquitoes!
8. Jake singing his tunnel song & "see you later train, have a good day"
9. Fresh bread of every sort
10. Delicious Swiss pastries
11. Swiss chocolate (it's the best!)
12. Gelato
13. Our favorite sparkling wine, Cafe de Paris
14. How green it is everywhere (one positive effect of all the rain!)
15. Traveling to new and beautiful places in Europe
16. Cheering for Michael at games with Jakey
17. Our good friends

As much as I will miss these things, our life at home is waiting for us, along with lots of wonderful family and friends, whom we've missed sooo much! While thinking about the new beginning that our family is about to start when we get back home, I found some awesome scripture that is so encouraging and will be words for us to live by:

Isaiah 43:18-19 Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Family pic overlooking city of Zurich, a few days before coming home

So, in saying goodbye to all of our Swiss friends, "Von der Unterseite unserer Herzen, danke für alles, wir lieben dich!"

But as Judy Garland so unequivocally put it in The Wizard of Oz (one of my favorite movies as a child), "There's no place like home." 

Thanks for the memories Switzerland!!

Texas, here we come, yeehaw!! God bless America & AMEN!!!