It’s 1:00am and I am sitting in my own living room, headed soon to my own bed. Grateful.

The journey home was mostly just L.O.N.G. Ironically, all of our travels in Haiti (the third world country, remember) were completely smooth and without struggle. The Tortug Air Shuttle picked us up at the orphanage compound at 5:45am. When we arrived at the tiny Les Cayes airport, it was buzzing with activity–and people. There were other blans (whites) there, too. A group from Kansas City had heard the scores of the Saturday NFL games, but not the Sunday ones (it’s funny what blans talk about when they see each other in Haiti). We were nervous that we would not get on the one plane (14 seats) that was scheduled to leave at 7am. Lionel showed up on his motorbike, sleepy, but there to help us get what we needed. Pastor Paul also came to wish us Godspeed. Pierre and Dominque came to help us with baggage. They are so kind to us. Yelline got up to make sure we had breakfast at 5:15. Oh my, they treat us so well.

In Port Au Prince, Gearry was waiting for us and all our bags made it, so we were ecstatic about that. The Port Au Prince flight left with a short delay, but we made it up, in the air.

In Ft. Lauderdale, the story got a little less fun. The customs wait there was an hour and a half. Dan Mahl left for Philadelphia for a business meeting. After we raced to the Delta counter in Ft. Lauderdale, the people told us there was only time for three of us to make it to the gate and to go without luggage. Renee and Dan Geitz have to work tomorrow and CC has already missed one day of classes, so we sent them ahead. They made that flight, no problem.

The rest of us re-booked on a later flight through Atlanta. Once we got to Atlanta, they switched our gates four different times (and it wasn’t just a few gates away each time–it was a couple terminals!). Ah well…in the end we made it home. I was teary to see the familiar faces at the airport: Lisa Cross, Susan Whited, Jason Christ, Mark Bramwell and a few others.

We realized on the flight home that we forgot to celebrate Pastor Allen’s birthday on Saturday in Haiti (terrible)…so we sang to him at the luggage carousel. :-)

It is time to go to bed. I am struck by God’s big big hands that hold us all–our brothers and sisters in Haiti, included. I can still smell the smoke in the air of Les Cayes and as I lay down to sleep I will pray that my dreams include the sweet voices of the children Haiti, singing their praises to our same God. Such a lullaby can only be by His design.

I am so glad to be home!