I've lived in a few places in my almost 40 years of life.

I started out in Oxford, England.  Then when I was 4 months old, I got moved to a wee little village about 1 miles from the city.  I was there for 17 years before the wanderlust hit me and I came to the US.

4 years and many states later, I came back to the UK and met a southern Indiana boy who decided he wanted to keep me forever and have me make babies with him.   He took me to South Dakota and kept me there for 9 years before moving me to Illinois, where we currently reside.

So, when I say that I'm homesick, where do you think I'm homesick for?  England, where I grew up and where my family all reside? 

No.  I don't consider England my home anymore.  I haven't been there for many years, and from what I've seen on TV and the internet, I probably wouldn't recognize my 'home' village anymore.  I don't think of England as where I belong.

I belong in South Dakota.  I'm homesick for South Dakota.  It's strange; most of the time I was there I wanted to leave, to get out and to never come back.  Now that I'm NOT there.....I want to go back. 

I want to go home.

I have a sampler in my kitchen that says 'Home Is Where The Air Force Sends Us' and to an extent that's true.  Home IS where the AF sends us; home is where my husband and children and dog(s) are.  Home is where our possessions are, it's where we lay our heads at night.  Home is wherever we want it to be.....temporarily.   See, I know that one day the military will be done with my husband and that the house we live in won't be our home anymore.   It's only a temporary shelter....it's not permanent.

It's not permanent.  Soon enough I'll be able to go home to South Dakota.  We'll drive there and we'll hold hands as we cross over the border from Minnesota.  We'll cry as we see the prairie unfold before us and reveal the Missouri river twisting it's way across the state.  Our hearts will be our compasses and they'll lead us to our real home, west of the river and on the edge of the Black Hills.  We'll find our little space and will eke out a living for ourselves raising chickens and vegetables and perhaps even bees.  We'll dig our way out of our home when it snows and we'll relish the summer's dry heat.  I'll be a travelling nurse, tending to ranchers who can't get into town to be seen, and he will be a man of leisure, living off my earnings (which will be total role reversal).

This place isn't permanent.  I'll get to go home soon.  Home.

It's where my heart lies.