In America, we live life large. The sculptures are large, our portions are large, our expectations are large, and our burdens are large. Unfortunately, my middle seems to get large when I’m here too. But that is just part of the surreal reality of living in different parts of the globe. Just next week we’ll give our parents hugs goodbye, get on a plane, and find ourselves back in France. We’ll have to pull up the shudders and open up all of our windows to get some fresh air in the apartment. Hopefully our car will start, because the next day I’ll be taking two different trips to the train station for other colleagues arriving back. We’ll unpack our extra large luggage and ask ourselves over and over, “where are we going to put this?” We’ll stock up our refrigerator that’s been sitting empty all summer. The boys will have just a few days to get through 8 hours of jet lag before school starts. I’ll get to see how the hardwood floor I installed in the boy’s room has stood the test of temperature and humidity changes. Finally finishing that project will be on the front burner before the crazy busyness of the school year begins. The tears and sadness of leaving will slowly be replaced by a familiar routine. We’ll miss the land of the large, especially large portion of love we feel there. It’s been a great summer…