Welcome to the USA

So my welcome back to the states has been full of friends and family, loving on me and supporting me as I make the transition to living stateside :)

I had an amazing time visiting friends at Harding, seeing graduation and getting to spend time with my brother Paul and his wife Amber! Paul took me to see his work and I was able to see the new robots they have moving the hot steel through the press. I also enjoyed seeing his work area and looking at his collection of tools!

At his house I enjoyed seeing new fish in his salt water tank and seeing all the new coral.

After spending time at Harding, I drove up to Missouri with Jacque and Natalie and we met up with Niki for some Starbucks!

Then I was happy to meet my new nephew and spend time with my sisters Cecelia and Rebecca and Rebecca's family for a few weeks.

We went to a Royals vs White Sox game, my first major league baseball game. Lots of fun!

We enjoyed going to downtown Independence and looking at the courthouse and the old prison.

I'm looking forward to seeing them again after these 3 weeks in the NW :)

America

Back in the states and safe and sound... but definitely overwhelmed. Glad to be back though :) I enjoyed visiting Harding and seeing friends who were graduating, friends who were in town for graduation and friends and family who just live in the area!

I'm back in Jefferson City with Jacque after saying "see you later!" to Bethany at Covenant this morning :( It's so hard to know I won't be seeing her within the next week!

I think my most memorable moment this week was when Chancellor Ganus gave the same quote during graduation as what was on my fortune cookie from my first chinese food here with Paul and Amber :)

"If you believe you are too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito."

Definitely true. At least the part about the mosquito being effective.. I need to grow into the truth of the other half.

London!

Arriving in London did seem as if we had entered some sort of magic portal into the future. All of a sudden there were lighted signs posted everywhere and we were out of the airport and into the cold! It was 40 degrees Fahrenheit... and drizzling-- Brr! We all layered all the clothes we had to keep warm, but none of us had long pants or jeans to wear so our capris had to do for the trip in town.

We had so much fun visiting a Starbucks, seeing Tower Bridge, walking around Big Ben and Westminster, finding a red telephone booth, and we finished our trip in town with a visit to the Buckingham Palace where we found a pillar marked West Africa :)

It was such a whirlwind of visits around town... and then we arrived at security seconds late-- which I think we all regret not having rushed more towards the end, but when trying to enjoy a place it seems odd not to savor your last moments there. So we were rewarded with being able to savor the airport overnight :) British Airways was kind to us and allowed us to reschedule our tickets for the next day without a fee, but each of us had connecting flights to make which had to be rescheduled. Through Delta my ticket change only cost the difference in seat price which was $0 so I am extremely thankful to only have had food costs for the night-- which ended up being covered by Bethany's sister, thank you Andrea! I feel extremely blessed to have the support I have and to know that I have many people praying for my travels! It also is quite calming to think of the fact we were stuck in London overnight and not Accra... since we ended up having difficulties with our check in there as well and I believe that went through all our minds at the time ("Are we going to be stuck here in Accra?"). For the most part, it is our impatience to be back in the states that has us nervous and anxious to be on our next flight already, but we have another 9 hours to wait for our flight. We are all ready to take turns taking naps and watching bags throughout the day as we wait and try to catch up on all the sleep we've already lost in our travels.

Can't wait to see all of you!!! I hope everyone has enjoyed a beautiful weekend :)