DR – Day 9 – The Trip Home
The hotel had Fruit Loops in the breakfast buffet. Go figure. However, I didn’t have any because I’d already emotionally said goodbye to them yesterday at the Casa.
But ohhhh, to sleep in a hotel bed last night. To be able to control the temperature of our water. The simple things. We still couldn’t drink the water or anything yet, however…
Today four of us got sick… so far. We’ll see if anyone else get’s sick before the weekend is over. So far, we’ve decided that the three of the four people that got sick drank water at the restaurant last night. Luckily I didn’t have any of that. However, sitting here on the plane on our second flight of the trip, I can’t decide if I’m starting to feel sick or not. At this point, it could just be a tired body. Or that I had Dominoes pizza at the Atlanta airport. I guess we’ll find out, huh?
Grace spent the whole trip journaling. One of the things she did was create little profiles for each person on our team. So today at breakfast one by one, she told us everything she wrote. And as she finished each person, the rest of us went around and told each other what we appreciated about each person on the trip. It was a very uplifting time. And one of those times that after today, will never have happened as well as it did today.
We said goodbye to Juanchi today at the airport, the COTN interpreter and pretty much the guy in charge of us all trip long. All the way up to the point that we walked through immigration, he was with us. It was actually kind of hard to say goodbye to him. He said he is anxious for my return… and I don’t think he has any idea how anxious I am for it too. By the way, Beth, I told him that it would be too long.
So we hung out in the Santo Domingo airport for a while and finally boarded our plane. We made it to Atlanta and are now on way home to Seattle.
Some said that they couldn’t have stayed much longer. And some of us didn’t want to leave. And some of us just want to feel better no matter where it happens.
I am thrilled to get home to see Beth, Nathan, Josh & Wrigley. It’s been 15 days since I’ve seen my boys. It’s been 9 since I’ve seen Beth. And 18 or 19 since I’ve seen Wrigley. It will be fun to be back together again. I hope they all remember me.
I’m finding that the closer I get to home, the more the little things are creeping back in to my brain. Like it was great to land on US soil in Atlanta, but my phone turned on and I had seven voice mails. I don’t want to hear them yet. It’s like the world didn’t stop just because I was gone. Go figure. I’m not ready for all of that yet. My mind hasn’t comprehended the last 9 days yet. Let alone start processing work. Monday is going to be a tough one.
God is definitely working in me. I am sitting by myself on the airplane right now and its one of those forced times to have to think. Those of you who know me well know that I don’t do by myself very well. So this is kind of hard after having 9 days of being around people from the moment I woke up to the moment I went to bed. But in a way, I’m thankful. I’d rather up be a few rows and watching a movie or something with Brandon. But oftentimes it takes these forced alone times to get me to quiet down enough to hear God.
I’m still not entirely sure what I’m learning, but I know that my heart is different than it was 9 days ago. I also know that if I am not intentional, I will get home and quickly slip right back into my normal life and have had no change. I don’t want to forget. I don’t want to forget the look on the faces of the families that we helped this week. I don’t want to forget the image of all the water as we watched their village flood with water from one morning of rain. I don’t want to forget the Dominican culture and spirit. I don’t want to forget the people that we met this week and worked with this week. I don’t want to forget what it feels like to truly help someone. I don’t want to forget that I had less this week and I was just fine. I don’t want to forget that these people have less than we can really imagine and they are still so joyful, yet we have so much and often struggle to find a smile for our neighbor.
I know that I’m still processing emotions from our trip and that it may skew my judgment a little of what I’m thinking about. But at the same time, is this not the best opportunity for God to speak to me?
Please pray for all of us as wet get home that we would be able to listen and remain affected by this trip. And pray that nobody else gets sick.
