last night we had our best little dinner party ever. our household plus three celebrated daniel's birthday with amazing sushi that he mostly made himself. julianna (our wonderful, kind emotionally balanced housemate) stated it well when she said, "i don't know if i'm at home or at haiku." really, it was that good. after dinner, we took a little walk around our neighborhood, which is increasingly about the only place i would want to live in columbus. julianna showed us the community garden a block from our house, and we tasted all of the herbs that were growing there. did you know that tarragon tastes like anise and makes your tongue numb? in other news, i've been extremely stressed out this week - 15 page paper, emergency placements at work, etc. the cool thing, though, is that we finally found my girl who ran away when she was 13 (she turned 14 last month) after she was missing for four months, and she's finally in a safe place. i got to spend most of my day with her yesterday, and although it added to my chaos, it's one of those things that reminds me why i have such a hard time thinking of leaving this job. there has been a lot of talk of orphans at our church lately - we've started our very own orphanage in cambodia with asia's hope, and it's very, very exciting. but yesterday reminded me that it's ok that i'm not actually across the ocean at our orphanage in person, because i have my very own orphans here in columbus who need me. this girl is a true orphan - her mother and little brother died in a house fire, and her father died of cancer. she has no relatives left to take her because she has a lot of emotional and behavioral issues (as pretty much any 14 year old in her situation would.) i've been with her through five homes. it's strange to think that i'm one of the only constants in one girl's life. that's not a reflection of my goodness or anything, but a reflection of how powerful this job can be at times... anyway, i have the day off tomorrow. hooplah! my parents are coming to town for the annual meeting of the conservative mennonite conference. i grew up spending a lot of weekends at "conference," and this week has really had me thinking about my identity as a mennonite. the lovely erica wrote earlier this week about being a third culture kid. i will write more about this soon. until then, i'm looking forward to seeing people i haven't seen for years, and showing off my nose ring and tattoo. (just kidding, mom!) now i have a few more things to catch up on at work before i can go home. happy weekend!