A chance to breathe

Hey everyone! Phew, I made it: I am back in Texas! What a whirlwind last few days it has been. I had a great few days with my family in Singapore, and then they took me to the airport early one morning for my flight home (and I do mean EARLY, because I had to wake up at 3:30 AM!). It was very hard to say goodbye to all of them, but I am grateful I will get to see them all for Christmas. That's only about four months away! Which is so much better than not seeing them for 10 months, which is what I did last time. Anyways, the flight home went very well. I slept on and off during the entire 30-hour trip, and it actually went by faster than I expected. I did spend a couple of hours writing in my journal, writing down stories from the last month, especially my times in the tsunami-affected area. And then: I finally arrived back in Texas! I was met by my uncle and cousin...and by Wyndi and Cody! It was a great surprise, because they were in the area for a debriefing their organization was doing for all the summer groups that had been sent out, and they met me at the airport and suddenly asked: "Hey, do you want to come to debriefing with us?" And so that worked out, and I spent my first two days at a debriefing. It was good to talk over the experiences, discuss what it was like to come back into American culture after all we had seen over the summer, and to spend time with other groups who had been doing different things in different places this summer. It was great to see Wyndi, Jarod, and Cody again, even though we didn't get to spend a great deal of time just the four of us.

So then Saturday at noon, the debriefing ended, and we all said goodbye. It was a little sad, but we exchanged e-mails and I will get to see them in a few more weeks at another convention for Texas students. Jarod and Cody had to leave right after everything ended, but Wyndi and I got a chance to eat lunch and talk together before she left. Then I waited for my grandparents at the hotel...and it was so great to see them again! We came back to the house, and I got a chance to talk a lot about the summer and what God had been teaching me. That evening, Lance came over to visit, and we got to talk about a lot of different things. And then, exhausted, I crashed that night close to midnight.

Well...then I slept until 10:30 this morning. Which is pretty amazing for being jet-lagged, but at the same time, understandable because I've been running non-stop for the last...well, for the last month. I'm finally getting a chance to slow down and step back, to breathe, to evaluate and process everything I've been through. It's been good. I'm praying God will continue to work in me and never let me forget the things he taught me this summer. I'm also praying that he will do whatever it takes for me to know, obey, and love him better this semester at school. He is good, he is so faithful, he is so powerful, and he has so much love he wants to shower on us. May we be faithful to love in return.

I'm hoping to shortly post several pictures from the last month, so hopefully those will be up soon. May God bless you each in a special way this week.