The Home stretch

I made my way back through security and found my gate. On my way to my gate I ran into a group from the mission who had also had a long night. This group did not come out with us on the bus. They were still able to fly out of Port-A-Pey to Port-A-Prince but they waited 11 hours at Port-A-Prince to get on a plane to Miami. After they boarded the plane they found something wrong with it and made them all get off. Curtis and Grant came back from the hotel to get the group and take them with them back to the hotel. But at 11PM they got the plane fixed and they flew into Miami at 3AM and now they were going to be on my flight from Miami to Chicago. It was sure nice to see familiar faces after a very long, emotional and draining day by myself.
On the flight from Miami to Chicago I sat next to a guy who about an hour into the flight we hit up a conversation about Haiti. I soon learned he knew a lot about Haiti and had a passion for helping Haitians and other underprivileged individuals. He told me all about the History of Haiti back to Christopher Columbus. He talked about the corrupt government and how He works with a group that tries to find ways to help Haitians that does not involve money directly since the government takes it. He said how they buy pigs, chickens, and donkeys to give out. How they teach them how to plant crops and how they try to help educate the people. He said he lives by the quote give a man a fish he eats for a day, teach a man to fish he eats for a lifetime. He later went on to tell me he was born and raised in Guatamala and came to the states to become a dentist. He ended up staying because of the fighting going on in Guatamala in the 80’s. He now on Saturdays has a clinic for underprivileged families and in his free time he fought for the rights of the poor immigrants. He was on his way to a meeting in Chicago to fight for a Bill for Congress. I am not real into political things but he sure knew his stuff and I know I did a horrible job explaining what He does and what he fights for but it was totally a God thing that I was sitting by him and I was inspired by how he helps people. I was reminded how God gifts each of us individually to help people in our own specific ways. I told him all about the Northwest Haiti Christian Mission and the different areas they have ministries in and how they are helping the Haitian people. He was very impressed with all the mission does.
Once I landed in Chicago I had a 3 hour layover till my last flight to Clevland. I took that opportunity to make some phone calls. I talked to a few friends from home and listen to some worship music. Finally we began loading the plane and I looked at my ticket and realized I did not have a seat number. My heart dropped NOOOO I have to make this flight, I just want to go home…lol…So I went up to the counter praying the whole way that I had a seat on this flight. The person behind the desk said we have someone here who needs to fly standby I was thinking oh no but they the women next to her goes no she has a seat look. I began thanking God. YES!!! I was going home. I boarded the plane and sat next to a woman who was from Brazil and was going to the Clevland clinic for a 4 rotation, she was going to school to be a doctor in Brazil. My last flight was awful I think part had to do with it being such a small plane but also me being so tired. I was nauseous the whole flight and felt like I was going to puke. I was praying the last 15 minutes while we were descending I would not puke on the plane.
When I landed I called mom and dad and asked if they wanted me to get them any food, because I had $10 left in food vouchers and I was too nauseous to eat. So I got them a fruit smoothy and milk shake. I went to claim my luggage and found out that not much luggage came on the plane at all and of course mine was not there. I went to the office to tell them mine was missing and well, THERE IT WAS sitting there inside the door. It must of came in on the flight last night.
Mom and Dad came and picked me up. It was so great to see them and to be in the truck heading to Camp where there is a bed. It feels great to have now gotten a good nights sleep had some fresh vegetables and fresh fruit and got to go to my church in Erie this morning.

Ps. Courtney I really tried to get my parents to send me back to Haiti. I belched really loud in the car when I got in…but it did not work. I would have had to tell them to give me a couple days to recover before they sent me back anyway J