Where are you from?

This past weekend was Decorah's 46th annual "Nordic Fest." Most small towns in Iowa have some sort of summer festival, many celebrating the ethnic heritage of the town's founders, or some quirk of the town's location or history. Decorah's festival celebrates its Norwegian roots and is unusually well-organized and successful at drawing back many hundreds of former residents every July.

With so many visitors in town, it was not unusual for the locals to inquire of a new face, "Where are you folks from?" The question was posed to us at least a half a dozen times in the course of the three day event. We found ourselves wishing we could just click that old Facebook button, "It's complicated!"

The Director's house in Nottingham

So where are we from? Nottingham, England? Most immediately, I suppose that's correct. We were resident there for a year and it came to feel much like home by the end. But it wasn't really home-- we always knew we were there only temporarily, for a fixed term.

Our living room in Cedar Falls, as it was before we put everything into storage.

So where are we from? Cedar Falls, Iowa? We lived there 26 years, raised our family there, and have many friends in that community. But we sold our house and have been absent from there for more than a year. It's probably more correct than any other answer, but it's not entirely right.

With our daughters and my parents, in front of their Des Moines home, about four years ago.

So where are we from? Des Moines, Iowa? We've been using my parents' home as our legal address while in England, and my Mom & Dad have been diligently sorting and saving our mail that's been delivered there. Our bank accounts and credit cards are all linked to that address. I grew up in Des Moines, but haven't lived there in more than 40 years. My wife has never resided there. Technically, it's our home, but not really.

So where are we from? Decorah, Iowa? I've been an employee of Luther College for 13 years, so I have an office address and phone number, but have always commuted to work from out of town. My wife has only visited occasionally and still gets lost on the winding streets. We're here now in a temporary apartment, but we are still living out of suitcases there and have to leave it in a few weeks.

The house we will occupy in another month.

So where are we from? It's complicated! We've been "homeless people" in a way for this past year. But in another month we shall have a house in Decorah that, hopefully, we will soon make into our home. Perhaps then, when people ask, we won't have that long, awkward pause in which we look at each other and try to figure out how to answer.