Away from home

It has been a longtime since I blogged, actually it's been about 2 months. I haven't had the time t sit down and write a meaningful post and the fact that we didn't have internet for one of the two months. As many of you may know I am in South Africa right now. Our team landed here at 5:30pm on Saturday (11:30 pm Florida time), we are 6 hours ahead. It was a very long flight to say the least, 16 hours long. We flew out of Orlando headed to D.C and from D.C we set out on the long flight. The airline decent movies and pretty good food which was nice, but I got a total 3 hours of sleep, at most, on the whole flight. My back was hurting and so was my neck. Every time I would fall asleep I would be woken up by the own neck bobbing from side to side. I guess my head is too heavy. It makes me think of those bobbing toys that people put in their cars. I was also very jealous of all the people around me that could fall asleep. I had Shelly in front of me, Joanna to my side and John Parker behind me, all slept a lot better than I did. Shelly is one of those people that can fall asleep at the snap of your finger. She slept 13 of the 16 hours and she would find the most interesting positions to sleep. Joanna had 2 seats to herself, super jealous of her, John Parker on the other hand looked like a sardine crammed in his little seat area, I felt awful even asking to push my seat back because he already looked like he could not move.

We stopped to fuel up the plane 7 hours into the flight; Joanna, Shelly, John and I were talking and we discovered that it was Joanna's birthday. One of the passengers, literally 4 rows in front of us, gets up and says, "It's your birthday today? Can I sing happy birthday to you?" Joanna of course says yes, because she is so sweet and possibly curious too. Shelly and I are pumped and we say, "oh, we will sing with you" thinking he is going to do the happy birthday we are used to, but instead this guy decided to sing happy birthday as if he were auditioning for American Idol or something. It has been the highlight of my trip so far.

During the flight, I have been reading this book called A Long Way Home, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, which Anthony recommend I read and it has been phenomenal. More people need to read that book, because it is so real and so sad and very typical to many children in Africa. I have also had a lot of time to reflect on life and the this trip and what I may possibly get from it. I was just thinking about how wonderful our life is in America and how much we take for granted sometimes. You know they say that if you think about what you are going to wear in the morning or if you think about the food you are going to eat you are considered RICH and almost half the world (about 3 million people live on $2.50 a day). Honestly, when I think of "the rich," I never think of myself. I never think of my family and friends, but the truth of the matter is that we are rich. We have choices that people in more than half of the world don't have. We take so much for granted, myself included!!

During the flight, I also thought of how awesome God is and how amazing it is to know the word. I realize that I need to live more by the word so that I can lead by example. I need to be a better friend who is not going to get annoyed or frustrated, I need to be a wife who reflects Jesus and will put Anthony before my self, and I just need to treat people, even strangers, better. We were actually reading Phillipians 2 1:4 in our bible study this week and it just made me realize that I treat the people I know with love and respect, but it is so much easier to not treat people I don;t know that way simply because I don't know them. That verse made me accountable and it made me realize that I am not following the word and that I am so flawed. Which 1. it makes me want to be better and 2 it makes me go grateful the grace of God. So thankful that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and that I have come to know and love Jesus. It's an incredible thing.

I really miss Anthony. I am really sad he could not come because he would have been great here. He would be so awesome at encouring these kids and the people here in Malawi because he is a beautiful person inside and out. It's hard to do things without each other. I don't like experiencing things with out him and I don't like being away from him. I feel this gap in my heart when he is to around, but with that said I am grateful for the people that I am getting to know on this trip and the relationships I am building. I need more Christians in life, people who will keep me accountable and help me stay on the right track. It's also very sweet that everyone on the trip is sad that he could not come, so many of the guys even talked about how bummed they were that they were not going to have the chance to get to know him on this trip, but I am sure they will once we get back home.

Any way, just so you guys know...it's 4:16 am here. I could not sleep, along with many others, so I decided to write and ramble. Sorry for that. I promise to keep a journal the whole trip and I will load it when I get back to the states. Miss you all!

Kay