Easter Sunday in Adelaide, Australia

Today, it happened. What I was so desperately hoping to avoid: homesickness. I guess it had to come at some point, and I definitely know why it happened. Every single year of my life (21 years may not be old, but it is a pretty good amount of years!), I have been to a church service on Easter Sunday with my family. This year, I had no one to go with. First, let me give you a list of things I love about Easter at home.

1. Sunday morning waking up to a basket full of chocolate and money (once I got older) filled eggs.

2. Lunch at my grandparents. I'm talking a full spread: ham, macaroni and cheese, green beens, biscuits, SWEET TEA!, and any kind of dessert you can think of!

3. Easter egg hunt with the cousins and easter egg hunt at church.

4. The Easter Cantata at church with my family.

5. Easter dresses and white shoes!

6. Reese's eggs

7. Cadbury candy covered mini eggs

8. Jelly beans

9. Dark chocolate pastel colored M&Ms

10. Dying easter eggs

11. The entire day spent with family

12. Waking up to the peace (that just seems to be everywhere and in everyone I meet) of just knowing that today, my Savior beat death for me.

My Easter in Adelaide consisted of:

1. Chocolate eggs (that I bought b/c I just HAD to!)

2. Waking up to a dilemma: no directions or address to the church I was going to attend and no internet to look it up.

3. No one willing to go to church with me.

4. Everyone on the hall taking jello shots out of plastic eggs instead of finding chocolate and money in them. (That was really disturbing to me. I wanted to cry.)

***Here's where the day did get a little better. :)

5. A walk through Elder Park in the city of Adelaide just God and me.

6. Attending a new church in town for their 5 PM service.

7. Meeting very friendly people who gave me a ride back to campus so I didn't have to take the bus alone in the dark and ones that I will be meeting to go apple-picking in the morning! :)

8. A very interesting stir-fry concoction that I came up with consisting of mushrooms, tomatoes, broccoli, pasta, and seasoning. Overall, pretty healthy and actually tasted pretty good. However, it was no Mama and Grandma's cooking!

9. Finally finding the peace that I usually wake up with. Though I knew it was there, it was harder to see in myself when it wasn't noticeable in the people around me. (I know that doesn't make much since, but it's the best way to explain the feeling that you get when it hits you that thousands of years ago today Jesus rose from the dead after being crucified so that we may live.)

Overall a bad Easter? Not really. Just different. But, it was different enough to make me miss home. So, for those of you wondering if I miss home: A little, sometimes more than others, and especially on this Easter Sunday.