No place like home...

I'm home! I decided I better update the blog since some people at church this morning were interested to know when I would be going back to Dominica so I could keep the blog going. :) Let's see...I left last Friday morning to go to St. Maarten and join a group from Greater Atlanta Christian School to do mission work. There were 12 high school students and 3 other "adults". When exactly did I become an adult? It happened so fast, I must have missed it. St. Maarten/Sint Martin is a very beautiful place. Much prettier than Dominica (in my opinion), and definitely much more developed. The colors of the water in SXM remind me of the Mayan Riviera in Mexico. The water around Dominica is pretty dark because it is deep. We were very busy all week. During the day we went to a Christian school on the Dutch side (where they speak English) and helped the students with their school work. We also put together a library for them. GAC had a book drive before the trip and brought about 805 books for the school! At night we went to the French side of the island and held VBS...in French! The older kids spoke English, so I worked with them. I now know how to sing Jesus Loves Me, If You're Happy and You Know It..., and Jesus Loves the Children of the World in French. We also had a youth day on the Dutch side to play games with the kids from church, went to an orphanage twice to paint and clean up, went to a nursing home to visit the residents, cleaned up about 20 big bags worth of trash off a beach, and attended a 3 hour church service in French! It was a very fun, but very exhausting trip! When we arrived at the orphanage we learned that 22 of the children had the chicken pox! Ryan has never had it and is completely terrified of getting it. Then at VBS a child was throwing up everywhere and they told us the flu was going around! Since Ryan has many important tests to take over the next 2 weeks, we decided that I better go straight to TN (rather than going back to Dominica for 1 day, as was the original plan). No need to take 4 extra flights and possibly deliver some type of sickness to him! I was sad to not get to see him, but since I hate to fly I was happy to cut my flights down from 6 flights in 2 days to only 2 flights! However, since I didn't go home b/f coming to my TN home, I only have mission trip clothes! My wardrobe consists of athletic shorts/pants and Tshirts...and it's freezing here! I'll try to post some pictures of SXM later this week. Getting home was an adventure - isn't it always? I had to go from SXM to Miami. I hate the Miami airport so much! I have never seen so much chaos in my life. If you are ever going to Miami (ex. if you come visit us in Miami when we move there in December) fly into Ft. Lauderdale and drive! It's only an extra 30 min drive and definitely worth it! Anyway, I had to wait in the airport for about 5 hours and it was so cold that I had to go into the gift shop and by a pashmina (there weren't any sweatshirts or blankets so I just wrapped up in a pashmina (it's like a scarf, for the men who are reading and don't have a clue what I'm talking about). My flight was supposed to get in at 11:45 this past Thursday night. Instead it arrived around 12:20 AM and there was a big storm coming. We finally left Nashville and headed for home around 12:45 AM. I was exhausted and went to sleep and the next thing I know we were pulled over at a gas station waiting for a big storm with hail to pass through. I went back to sleep and woke up as we pulled into the garage at 3:30AM. Of course I had to take a shower since I had been traveling all day. I probably went to sleep a little after 4:00 AM and then got up to go to Martin for Nana's birthday party. It was a lot of fun! My first weekend home has been fabulous! I'm ready for Ryan to get here! He arrives a week from Friday. Please keep praying for him so he doesn't get burnt out! He's almost finished his first year of medical school! :)