Home is...our cabin.

If you google "Home is where..." you get all kinds of sweet (and funny)(and inappropriate) sayings...

Home is where the heart is...
Home is where the stuff is...
Home is where the story begins...

For us, home is in Cabin 6318 on a ship called the Africa Mercy.  Deck 6, Aft, Port Side. A home that goes with us (or maybe it would be more accurate to say a home that we go with...).

Front Door (the quote/verse/signs change on a regular basis)

This is our third cabin since we first moved onboard.  We started off in a lovely flat up on Deck 7...then moved down the hall to another fantastic piece of corner real estate...and now we've arrived in a cabin where we think we'll be a while.  
  

Home is... where we live...home is where we eat and play and cry and laugh....home is where we watch movies and have random dance parties and invite others to join us for lunch....home is where we take 2 minute showers and hear overhead announcements...home is were we do homework and write blogposts and read books and play games... home is where we grow as a family and where we help one another be who God has created us to be.

Living Room, Angle 1 (Eli's room and the door are to the left, the girls' room is right behind me, the wall of windows is to the right)

Living Room, Angle 2 (our bedroom is behind me, the "kitchen" and bathroom are to the right, the wall of windows is to the left)

Living Room, Angle 3 (the "kitchen" and bathroom are behind me)

If you were looking to rent a place like this, the advertisement might read something like....

A cozy, waterfront 3 bedroom, 1 bath flat.  Split floor plan with common central multi-purpose area for living, dining, cooking and entertaining.  Spacious ocean views from the 6th story of a 7 level earthquake proof complex.  Ample storage space in a variety of built in shelves and cabinets. Centrally located.  Just steps away from abundant amenities, including laundry and cooking facilities, communal vacuums, pool, 2 separate work out rooms, on-site dining facilities and meal plan included, excellent schools in the area, very short pedestrian commute to business district which includes post office, bank, coffee shop, library and church.  The rooftop patio features nightly sunset viewing and frequent wildlife sightings.  Nearly all surfaces are magnetic, creating abundant personalization opportunities throughout. On site plumbers, electricians, carpenters, medical personnel, on-call 24 hours a day.  Vintage style internet services. A lovely neighborhood rich in culture and diversity. 

Substitute these curtains for the ones in any of the other pictures of the living room.

Eli's Room

Caroline & Emma's Room

Nick & Dianna's Room

The Bathroom

A cabinet that was brave enough to be photographed

We have 8 sets of these cabinets in our cabin. All of the shelves are adjustable and removable!

We really are enjoying our new cabin.  We love the windows (all TEN of them!) and the extra space is a treasure.  And (this may be the best part!) it is beyond wonderful to have our own bedroom again.  We didn't mind the sleeper sofa the past 2 years -  it was actually rather comfortable for a sleeper sofa!!  But we are grateful to have a space that is truly ours....no more sleeping in the kitchen...or the living room....or the playroom...or the dining room.   

AND we love the location of this cabin.  Our other 2 cabins were up on the back of Deck 7 -- which is a very nice hall but the only reason most people were up there was because they live there (don't get us wrong, some amazing people live there!) - but there was never really a reason for people to "just pass by" (unless they were lost and trying to find the meeting room that's on the other end of Deck 7!).  6318 is right across from the laundry room - so that guarantees that pretty much all of the crew walk by our cabin.  It's also a nice route to take to get to the crew galley and the Academy - it's a pretty high traffic area. 

It reminds us a bit of our house on 19th Ave....one of the things we loved in Columbus was having students and friends stop by.  We never knew who might be sitting on the porch swing when we pulled into the driveway....or who might knock on the door.  

Favorite parts and special spots

Mini-Version of our family crest and verses that we're working on

So many special things in this picture!  Cup and saucer from a friend in Guinea...jar of rocks from all over the place...special plate that we brought from Georgia...

We want to live lives that are open, available and accessible -- and we're enjoying the fact that our cabin location is contributing to that (and yet still allows us plenty of time and space to be together as a family).  It's fun to have people stop by...it's fun to put verses and quotes and pictures up on the door knowing they'll be read by a plethora of people (and it's fun to brainstorm about ways that God might want to use our door to bless and encourage the crew!)....it's fun to meet new people and be able to say "if you get lonely or need anything just come round to our cabin, we're right across from the laundry room."  

So we're living it up in Cabin 6318 (which admittedly isn't as neat on a daily basis as the pictures on this blog portray....)...seeking to love and serve and be the family that God has called us to be...

Surely there will be more to come.