Over the last school holidays my family embarked on an epic holiday! The five of us traveled back to Nepal for the first time in eleven years. This meant it was the first time for our youngest and a wonderful opportunity to share that part of our lives with him.
Returning to Nepal was extremely special. I suppose part of me never really believed we'd be back and so to meet with our friends again, eat in their homes and share a laugh once more was priceless.
There was also a beautiful symmetry in our visit as one of my publishers sent me the edited manuscript for my novel, Out of the Cages (to be released in July under my other author name, Penny Jaye) to work on while we were there. This was the novel I had originally drafted during our final months in Nepal in 2006. It was a reminder to me that God's timing is perfect, even when I don't understand it.
I was also blessed with the opportunity to do two author visits while we were in Pokhara. One at the study centre my two big kids had attended when they were first starting school, and the other at a local home-school group. It was beautiful to be able to share my stories with kids in a different context and to watch them interact with my characters and books.
And of course we also did some lovely touristy things too, like spotting rhinos in Chitwan National Park and watching the sun rise and set (and the full moon rise too) over the glorious Himalayas!