Great News!

As some of you may or may not know, I grew up with a doll named Samantha as one of my closest friends:

Yes, I've always loved dolls, and I always will. And I already know I'm weird. But American Girl Dolls just really make me happy.

Anyway, when I moved to New York last fall, I thought it would be smart to get a little part time job to start saving up some money so I can move into my own apartment this fall when I go back to school in Louisiana. Then I remembered this cool little place in Manhattan: The American Girl Place. So, I decided to apply for a job over there. I went and filled out an application and resume (which Nony helped me write...see? sometimes it's very good to have a smarty pants English major as your big sister...hehe). The lady at the desk told me that they'd already done all of their hiring for the Christmas holidays, so there weren't any open positions at the moment, but that my resume looked great and they'd keep me in mind if anything opened up. I was slightly discouraged, but still very hopeful! And sure enough, a few weeks later, I received a call! They wanted to interview me and thought that I'd be perfect for the job! Unfortunately, they were hiring seasonal employees for the Christmas holiday season and I was leaving December 20th to go home for 3 weeks. This didn't exactly match up with the schedule that they would have liked for me to have. So, it didn't work out, but they told me to apply again when I returned home in January. So I did!

Once again, they told me that there weren't really any positions open at that time. But once again, I got a call after a couple of weeks. They wanted to interview me! The interview seemed to go pretty well, but they still had a bit more interviewing to do, so they would call me in a few days to let me know if I had the job or not. And, guess what!? I got it! I was hired for Avenue AG, a part of the store where I'd spend sometime working the register and a lot more time in the Doll Hair Salon!

It is SO much fun! I love the little girls and styling doll hair is very fun! I think I've got pretty much all of the hairstyles down! And I think I'm pretty good at it! There's only one doll that still intimidates me a little: See that doll in the middle of the picture? The one with the super curly brown hair? Yeah, when we get one of those, we have to RECURL her whole head of hair. It isn't hard, but it takes foreverrrrr. But it's beautiful when it's finished!

Just in case anybody is wondering, the best way to care for your American Girl Doll's hair is to make sure that you always wet it before brushing (be careful to avoid getting water in her eyes). Then, using an American Girl Doll brush (or any wire wig brush, although I reccomend the AG brush, it's easiest and others fall apart easier in my experience) start brushing small sections from the tips up to the top until all the tangles are out. And voila! Don't ever brush it without water, if you do, it will dry up and become frizzy and broken. Also, never ever put any product in her hair. ONLY water. Now, if you have a curly haired doll (such as some of the My AG/Look Alike/AG Today dolls, Lanie, Nicki, Kanani, Rebecca, or Ruthie) it is very easy to care for their hair. It is intimidating, but it isn't nearly as hard as it seems! All you need to do is follow the previous steps to brush all of the tangles out first. Then simply pull up all of her hair, but the bottom layer (You'll see little lines or tracks in her hair where the wig is sewn together. Follow those lines). Now, using a rat tail comb, pencil, chopstick, or anything long and skinny like that, take small sections of hair and wind it around it. Make sure it is damp. It'll take a rather long time if you have one of those My AG with the tiny curls, but the results are beautiful.

Catching Up - Fall 2010

Since October, I have been staying with my older sister, Nichole in her apartment in New York City. Crazy, huh? Yeah, I told y'all I had alot of catching up to do!

Well, about a year ago, we found out that she was pregnant! A few months after we got this news, she invited me to come stay with her and Frank and the new baby in New York for several months. And, after much thought and prayer and consideration, I said...maybe. It depended on if my scholarship for school would dissapear. If that happened, then there was no way that I could take 2 semesters off school.


The good news is, the TOPS people said yes! They said there are certain exceptions that they'll make. Since I'm a theatre major and New York is basically the musical theatre capital, they viewed it as an experience that would enhance my education. And, it's enhanced my education in many more ways than theatre.

On July 9, 2010, Emma Lucia Crocco was born. She came 7 weeks early and had to stay in the NICU for about a month. She was very tiny and sometimes forgot how to breath. But, by the time I arrived here in October, she was perfectly healthy and getting a little chubby!


I had hesitations about coming here to New York, though. I knew that it would be lonely and difficult. And I knew that it would be cold for mostly the entire time of my stay here. (I hate cold.) But, I also knew that there were some really good reasons for being here.


I was so afraid of leaving home. It was very, very hard. The goodbyes (or as Shelli said, the "see you laters") were a bit heart wrenching. I didn't know how my friendships, that I care SO much about would last after 8 or 9 months of living in another state.


October 12th was a tearful Tuesday morning (of course, because Tuesdays never fail to be the day that I'll have a bad day, if I am to have one). Mom and Dad brought me to the Lafayette airport. They waved at me once I boarded the plane and kept waving until my plane was out of sight.


Flying again was very exciting! I used to be pretty afraid of flying, but when I went to Africa, we had 8 flights in all, there and back. So, I learned to enjoy it. And also learned that napping on airplanes is perfect. I had a 2 hour layover in the Fort Worth/Dallas airport. Then I had the longer flight up to New York. Y'all are never going to believe my good luck! I ended up on a row of 3 seats and nobody else on my row showed up!! So guess who stretched out and took a very, very relaxing nap? Me!


When I woke up, it was dark. When I looked out of the window, I could see city lights everywhere I looked. I knew I was close.


Sure enough, soon I landed. Nony met me at my baggage claim and helped me carry my things out to the car. And that's when I got my first glimpse of Emma Lucia. That precious baby girl was sleeping soundly in her carseat.


The first week in New York felt like 2 months. When I had only been there for 2 weeks, it felt so much longer. Time was just crawling by. I cried alot. Adjusting was very difficult. I just couldn't figure out how to be happy up here. That lasted 2 1/2 months. Until I went home for Christmas. Sometimes it was better, sometimes it was worse, but mostly I just couldn't find a way to be "ok". I was just sort of mopey alot of the time.


But there were some wonderful parts too! Of course, getting to know my sweet little niece has been so great. And watching her learn and grow so much! Spending extra time with my big sister Nichole is awesome too. Although, now we know exactly how our personalities can clash... And I'm getting to know Frank more and more. And his family! His parents moved to the US from Italy a few years before Frank was born. Being around the Italians is definitely fun (and different...and loud...and I never ever ever leave with an empty stomach!!!) I've gotten to spend time exploring Manhattan and our neighborhood in Jersey City (which is "technically" in New Jersey, but really, it's another section of NYC...everybody who live in JC works in Manhattan and there's a subway that goes right into the city and everything. It's basically the same as if you lived in Queens or one of the other 5 sections). Nony and I went to see Chicago in November! That was a very fun night out!! Frank treated us :)


And, of course, all this time I've been learning so much. God has been using it to teach me more than I could have imagined. Most of those first few months were just plain hard. I think I just had to be completely broken and discouraged for Him to get through to me...(why am I so stinkin stubborn?) But I'll have more on that later because I'm writing about the broken and discouraged portion of my NY adventure. I knew all that time that God was teaching me to just be OK without being surrounded by my friends. And being happy with being alone sometimes. And especially that I needed to be turning to Him and trusting Him and depending on Him for things that I was going to my relationships with people for. I knew all of that in my head, but I just couldn't figure out how to apply it to my life.


I started going to a church in the City called "Graffiti". Mandy Trammell (she works at the BCM at LSU and went to Africa with us) got me connected with a girl named Danielle who went to LSU, but is living in NY now. So, I decided to check out the church, cause Mandy is awesome and I trusted her to be referring me to a worthwhile place ;)


Turns out, I was very right! It has been a highlight to my week to go to church and fellowship with the people that go there. I've actually made a few friends! I usually only see them on Sundays, but it's very refreshing to have our young adult small group every week after the sermon. I love just sitting and talking about God and what He is doing in each of our lives for an hour.


Then, in December, Mandy brought a group of about 30 students from LSU for a mission trip in NYC!! She'd told me about it months before I even left to come here. And I definitely wanted to be a part of that mission and serve with them. They arrived December 11th in many different groups. Mandy was the first to arrive and I went to meet her to make airport runs and we got to be the welcome crew! I immediately started making new friends with these people. I'd met 2 of them before, but most of them I didn't know. It was so wonderful to be around Louisiana people!! Pretty much all of the serving that we did was through the Bowery Mission, which is a ministry for homeless people. Let me just say this, it is SUCH a blessing to get the extreme privelege to be used by God to be His hands and feet.

And a few days after that came the highly anticipated December 20th! Nony, Frank, Emma, and I boarded a plane headed for New Orleans, Louisiana! Mom, Lydia, and Claire picked us up from the airport. From there, we got muffulettas and beignets, then went to Jade and Jennifer's house for supper and finally, HOME!!! Home, sweet sweet SWEET home!!

I was busy almost every single day of the 3 weeks I spent in Louisiana. I got to spend time with my family, Natalie Sibille, Ashley, Wiley, Caitlin, theatre people (and witnessed Duncan's proposal to Angie!), Mom's side of the family for Christmas Eve, Kaelyn, Shelli and Sydney (who live all the way out in Pearl River...what's that? you never heard of it? yeah that's right, cause it's pretty much all the way in Mississippi....haha), then went to Passion 2011 (which is a whole nother paragraph, so just hold your horses) where I got to spend 10 hours on a bus going to Atlanta Georgia with Mandie, Chelsi, Dano, and a few new friends, then once we got there saw Sloan and Megan Rogers and Whitney and Jordy and Michelle and lots of Africa people: Mollie, Cameron, Polly, Claire, Brittany, Cassie, Rob, Lynn, Shaun, Morgan, Kyle, and Jesse! (wonderful reunion, by the way! I hadn't seen most of them since June!), then came back to Louisiana and got to see Mary and Melanie before I left!

Okay, Passion 2011. There are not words to describe what God did in me those 4 days. But He was definitely there in Atlanta doing alot of work on alot of hearts. About 22,000 hearts. It never failed to completely blow me away when I went into the Philips arena for worship and saw the place packed with people praising and worshiping my God! It was beautiful and amazing and nearly gives me chills to think about it. It must be just a teeny tiny taste of what Heaven will be like! Also, the things that God taught me through the different speakers made me change the way I see and feel about things. I finally understand how much of a selfish awful person I am without Him. And I understand what His amazing grace is!! It's so incredible that He can love me! SO incredible.

I'm back here in New York now and things are going so so SO much better. I decided that I was going to have a good attitude this time. It's allowed me to be so much more open to the things that God is teaching me. I think the mainest thing is selfless love. (okay, yes I know "mainest" is not a word. I just like it and it gets my point across, so hush, Nony...sorry, my big sister is a grammer nerd :-P) It's so amazing to see how God is changing my heart. I've been trying so hard and He's been helping me to do things that I never could have or would have done. It's definitely very small baby steps, but I'm growing and I can see that.

Oops...

Well the other day I realized that I haven't blogged in a long, long while. I really wanted to post some detailed blogs about my trip to South Africa, but I didn't completely succeed.

I don't want to leave yall hanging (that is, if anybody even reads this...), but I can say this, to wrap up what I started. God used that trip in many different ways in my life. But I think that the biggest recurring theme of my trip was trust. God showed me how to trust Him over and over again. From before the beginning of the trip. Some of this, I've mentioned before, but I'll say it again because God used it to make an impact on my life.


Of course it started in the fall of 2009, when I refused to even consider going on the trip to South Africa in the first place. Then one day, something small inside me said "Go to Africa". Now I was actually thinking about it. I was miserable. I would go back and forth. I thought and prayed. And when I realized that I only had 1 little day to make this decision before the deadline to sign up for the trip, it was all even worse... At that point, I didn't even know how much money I'd need to raise, just that it was alot. Everything logical did not make sense. But, something in me didn't let go of it. And that something was God. Once I made the decision, complete peace washed over me.

Then I had $4000, immunizations, passport, and so many other preparations, but it was still alot of months away. The only one that really worried me was that big sum of money. And this is where God started telling me to just trust Him. He would provide it.


And He did. Every last bit.


Even after I got to Africa, the lessons about trust continued. Especially with the whole luggage issue.


Then in small ways, like when I had to sing at two different churches in Lehae and Kliptown and I had hardly any voice. I had to trust (yep, there's that word again). Maybe that seems small to most people, but I was pretty nervous and had to remember that God gave me my voice and I wasn't singing for myself, or the people in my crew, or even the South African people. Nope, I was singing for God. And any praises I sang to Him would be beautiful to Him. When I opened my mouth to sing, the notes just came out. I didn't feel like I had to strain anymore. Once again, God took care of me.


I also had to trust that He'd take care of the children that we'd grown to love so much: Amu, Naquanda, Lindewe, David...they all had become very special. I don't know how much they possibly could have understood about the gospel. They were so young. And they spoke different languages. But it wasn't MY job to make sure that they were saved. That was up to God. And I had the extreme privelege of getting to go there and proclaim His name to them for a short time. But that was only a small part of His plan for their lives and mine.


He taught me many other things while I was there and I had incredible experiences that I could go on and on about. But it's long past time to move on to the next thing that happened in my life. God's been growing me alot since last June and I have so much catching up to do.


But before I completely close out on the South Africa stuff, I have just a few of pictures:

Mission Trip To Johannesburg, South Africa Part 2: What God Taught Me The First Two Days.

The first afternoon there was pretty uneventful. We had alot of time to get settled and meet people and shower and stuff.
Mostly, I tried to get settled.
I didn't want to meet people while I was so mopey and upset about my luggage. I wasn't myself. And I wanted them to meet the happy Gracie. So I sat in my bedroom, wrote in my prayer journal, and cried.
I felt pretty sorry for myself.
And Mandie, who hadn't slept since who knows when sat there and endured all of my tears. Not only that, but she was sweet and loving and encouraging despite the condition that she was in. She even tried to help me call my mom with her phone, but it wasn't working right.
In other words, Mandie is awesome.
I was writing in my prayer journal and telling God just exactly how miserably upset I was. I was complaining about missing luggage, a headache, the cold weather, the fact that Mandie's phone wouldn't call Mom, and how I couldn't find my joy anywhere.
But as I was writing all this to God, I realized something. I realized how ridiculously selfish I was being. And how foolish. I was telling Him how I didn't want them to take me to get clothes and stuff that I needed. I said I wanted my own things. Stubborn, foolish, selfish, sinful Gracie. How pitiful is it that I am so very attached to my earthly belongings that I became this upset when I was without them!?
Finally, we got up to go meet people. There were a bunch of people standing outside the dining area. So, we went and started talking to people. I started to learn this stomp and clap dance thing, which was pretty fun and definitely harder than it looked! I still don't quite have it right...
Next, we had our first supper in Africa. I was kinda nervous. I didn't know what to expect. I had never had African food before. And I didn't know what they ate in Africa.
We ended up eating some noodles with meatballs and peppers. With a weird kind of sweet sauce. I didn't really eat too very much of it. I'm a rather picky eater. It's a shame, really. But, I'm doing much better than I was a few years ago. I tried everything even though it looked weird. Alot of other people liked it, though!
It was soooo cold in the dining room. And I was still wearing my dress that I'd traveled in the past few days with only my thin black cardigan. I was shivering and bouncing because I was trying to stay warm! It wasn't working, so Heath let me borrow his jacket. It was awfully thoughtful of him. Otherwise, I might have frozen.
We had our first worship service, heard a little more about what we'd be doing there, and watched a video about Nelson Mandella and things that happened with the Apartheid so we would know more about South Africa's history and culture. I feel awful, but the truth is, I don't remember that video at all. It's because I kinda fell asleep. I promise, I tried my very very hardest to stay awake, but it was impossible. And for the record, I wasn't the only one. I don't think there was a single person in there who didn't fall asleep! Remember, we'd been traveling since 6:00 Sunday morning! And it was Tuesday night. It was way past time for rest!
After the video, I finally got to take a shower!! Ahhh, it felt amazing. People gave me the things I needed. Mandie had shampoo and a towel. Chelsi had pajamas.
I was ok.
I was fine. I realized that I just needed to trust God. I had absolutely no reason not to. I had started this journey last fall. When I first decided to come. And God provided $4000. I can trust Him. He provided wonderful people to get to know before and on the way to Africa. I can trust Him. He got me and the other IWC team there safely. I can trust Him. He was providing for my needs, the things I didn't have. I can trust Him.
There was a reason for me losing my luggage. I needed to find joy in things that were not, well...things!
After I was all warm and clean I snuggled into my very own sleeping bag and my soft polka dot blanket (the only personal belongings that had made the flight!) and passed out. I slept so, so good.
When morning came, I woke up and thought, "Oh yeah, I'm here." It was a good "oh yeah" and a bad "oh yeah" at the same time. Because I also remembered that I didn't have anything here with me.
We packed sandwiches for lunch. But by the time I got to make mine, there was no meat left. It just wasn't my day.
But I tried to be positive, and I made a "Salad Sandwich"!
We went to the Apartheid museum that day. We learned alot about Nelson Mandella and everything that happened leading up to him. And also about the things he did to change what was wrong.
After the museum, we went back to Florida Baptist Church. A few of us played soccer together! It was very very fun! I was, for sure, one of the worst players, but I had a blast anyway.
It was the first time since I'd gotten there that I forgot everything else and was just happy! And having fun! It was great!
Then Scott came up to the game and called me over. He said, "You having fun?"
I smiled really big and said, "Yes!"
Then he said very quietly that he had just heard that they found my luggage!!!!
I was so, so excited! My smile grew and my eyes got big, "When will I get it!?"
He said that it was on its way and would arrive any minute now!
Now, I was really ready. Bring on those Soccer clinics in Dobsonville!!

Coming up next: Soccor Clinics and Loving on Kids: Dobsonville.

Mission Trip To Johannesburg, South Africa Part 1-Preparation and Traveling

Okay. Here we go. I have no idea how to write about this without it being the longest blog entry ever. Actually, it probably will be anyway. Following God to South Africa was one of the best decisions I have ever made. It was very difficult before. When I decided to go last October or November (I don't even remember exactly when it was), it seemed so crazy and so far away. I couldn't believe that I was going to go on a mission trip. To Africa. That's totally a Nony thing. Not part of my plan for my life at all. But, isn't it funny how sometimes God's plan for our lives is completely different from ours?
I think the thing that I got to learn about the most on this whole trip was about trust. Trust in my Father, God. Over and over again, I had to trust and over and over again He proved Himself to be unswervingly faithful.
After months of preparing, I finally had all $4000, all my shots, my passport, a giant suitcase borrowed from the Sibille's, Ashley's camera that she let me borrow (oh, and by the way...I didn't mention, but in May, Ashley and Wiley got married!! :-D), my "deluxe money belt", and lots of other little details all ready.
The day before I left, Natalie and Natalie both came over for supper and helped me finish up my packing. I checked and re-checked my list SO many times. I was very very stressed out about forgetting something. After checking it so many times, I found this paper that said that it was wise to bring an extra change of clothes and a few pairs of underwear in your carry-on just in case. So I thought "whatever..it can't hurt..."
We arrived in the early morning of June 6th at the BCM to head out to the New Orleans airport. I couldn't believe it was actually June 6th. The day that had been in my head for months and months. It was here! We were actually going.
I. was. terrified.
Sure, I was excited. But this was the farthest and longest I'd ever been away from home! The group leaving from Lafayette that I had been meeting with and kind of getting to know were Mandie, Chelsi, Heath, Jeramy, Daniel, and Andrew. Plus, there were 2 people that I didn't know. Travis, from LSU Shreveport. And Megan and Josh who were coming from the LSU Eunice BCM. There were other teams that we'd meet up with. But not until later. I said my goodbyes to my mom and dad and hugged them very tight. Then we all climbed on the bus to head for New Orleans.
Travis, the guy that we didn't know ended up sitting right next to me. And I have never grown to love a person so quickly! We all did. He just fit right into our group. It was like we'd known him for all those months that we'd been meeting. Just on the way to New Orleans, he was completely made part of the group.
We got to the airport with plenty of time to get our boarding passes and go through security and everything (which I went through first! Brave Gracie!...actually I was not brave at all. I didn't want to go first, but it just kind of ended up that way, unfortunately.) We also met up with more people going on the trip with us. Some people from LSU. Mandy, Shelli, Preston, Lindsey, Jenny, Catherine, and Courtney.
That first flight was my only window seat out of 8 flights total (that's including coming home). We flew to Washington DC and it was not a smooth flight at all. It was very turbulence-y and we hit some thunder storms that made it kinda scary. Plus the landing was really rough. I could actually feel one wheel hit the runway and then the other. I was thankful to be back on solid ground when we got off that plane. But, I still had an awfully long way to go. That was the shortest flight of all. And only the first of many more to follow.
After a 5 hour layover (and after learning that my deposit didn't go through, so I couldn't use my debit card for a few days...ahhh!!), we boarded our DC-London flight. I was so, SO nervous about this flight. It was my first ever flight over the ocean, my first ever overnight flight, and my first ever time leaving my country! And, everything overwhelmed me because I knew that my seat was not next to anybody I knew. Soon, my emotions got the best of me and I was standing next to seat 23E hopelessly looking back at Mandie with tears in my eyes, hoping that the person that was supposed to sit beside her would trade with me. After awhile, nobody showed up next to her, so the flight attendant just let me sit there next to Mandie, Heath, and Megan.
The flight went very well. I slept pretty good. It was a little weird and awkward for awhile, but I finally kinda figured out how to be comfortable.
We arrived in the London Heathrow airport on the morning of June 7. And guess what? Our flight to Nairobi did not take off until late that night. Sooooo, we had an 11 hour layover in the city of London, England!! How exciting is that!? We decided to make good use of our time and explore the city!
So, we had to go through customs there. It made me sort of nervous. Scott had told us that we shouldn't mention to them that we were going to Johannesburg for a mission trip. If we did, there's a good chance that they would send us right home from London. All we needed to say was that we were going to Johannesburg, South Africa for the World Cup. Which was completely true. But the whole idea made me a good bit scared.
When it was my turn, I was the first from our group to go to this particular lady's desk. She asked me a million questions: Where was I from? Where was I going? What for? What would I do there? What did I want to do in London? Why? Who was I with? How did I know them?
Finally, she let me through. And lucky for everybody else, they all went through after Josh Johnson (the LSUE BCM director), so that desk knew what was going on and it was nice and easy for them!
By the time we got done freshening up from our long day/night of traveling, exchanging money, figuring out what to do with carry-ons, and everything else, we had lost some time. Then we had trouble getting tickets for the Underground.
But finally we made it to the Picadilly line to head to Green Park. Every time the doors opened, a recording would announce what stop we were at, then say, "Please mind the gap..." And it was all in a British accent!
We walked through Green Park and when we came out the other end, we stumbled across a little place called Buckingham Palace. Maybe you've heard of it? It was very pretty. And there really were guards standing there with their fuzzy hats! But, I totally saw one of them move his head to look around...oh well. Hahaha
We also saw Westminster Abbey and Big Ben! And the Thames River.
Then we met a guy who was kinda crazy and chasing Shelli all around. Apparently he was some sort of performer for a live horror show. Turns out, when he stopped being crazy, he was quite normal and very fun to talk to.
Then we went to ride the London Eye. The largest ferris wheel in the whole world! By the way, I am kind of a little scared of ferris wheels. Actually, the last time I was on one, I hid my face and held on very tight the whole time. Nevertheless, I climbed onto the huge thing. And, I was very very quiet (this is kind of a big deal, since I usually am sort of talkative...), especially as it started getting higher. But I will admit, it was an amazing view! We could see the whole city! And further! And the river below us. I am glad I went!
After running through the city seeing all the famous sights, we found a little fish and chips place to grab some food. It was pretty yummy and definitely a good way to close out the experience, but to be completely honest, I'd prefer my Dad's fried fish any day!
After about 6 hours of non-stop running around, we had to head back to the Picadilly line and 30 minutes later arrived back at the London Heathrow airport. After getting our boarding passes and getting a big scare about our flight time (we thought we might have missed it! But we ended up realizing that we had plenty of time...) we wen through security and everything again. Then found our gate. I saw two girls standing together and one of them had a shirt that looked very familiar. It was an IWC Love Like Crazy shirt. Identical to the ones that Scott Belmore had given to all of us for the trip! She was standing right in front of me when we were waiting in line to board the plane. I tapped her on the shoulder and said "Hey! I have a shirt just like that! Are you going to South Africa for the mission trip!?" And guess what!? She said yes! Her name was Polly and she was from Mississippi. The girl with her was named Brittany! Two new friends!!
We got on the plane and this time we were all seated close to each other. But we still ended up switching seats around a little within our groups. I sat on a row with Mandie and Chelsi. We ate supper and tried to play some Travel Scrabble, but I kept falling asleep when it wasn't my turn. Finally, I guess they just decided to quit waking me up for my turns and I slept as hard as a rock. No Benadryl. No ear plugs. I was out. One of my best nights of sleep ever. I didn't move for hours.
We got to Nairobi, Kenya the morning of June 8. There were 6 of us who had to recheck our luggage here, because it didn't go all the way through to Jo'burg. Of course, I was one of those 6.
After a huge ordeal, waiting forever, Heath and the Kenya Airways man found the luggage, took our old luggage tags and went down a long hallway to check the luggage. But it was done! We barely made it to our flight (I mean, with seconds to spare).
This flight went pretty smoothly I sat next to Shelli and Andrew. Well, until Shelli discovered that the plane was pretty empty and there were a bunch of rows of seats behind us that were completely empty, so she went and stretched out for a nap. Me and Andrew looked over our papers about the Soccor Clinics/Holiday Bible Club that we'd be doing with the children once we got there.
We landed in Johannesburg and headed to customs, then went on to grab our luggage. But the luggage just took forever to come. We just waited and waited. Finally one of my pieces came around. Then we waited and waited and waited some more. I started getting a really bad feeling in my stomach. What if my luggage didn't come? That had happened to Nony before. As the minutes passed by, the feeling grew. Eventually the conveyer belt thing stopped. That was it. By the way, the suitcase that did come only had my sleeping bag in it. Oh, and some chocolate chips and syrup and chex mix to give to the missionaries. And that was it. EVERYTHING else was in that other bigger bag.
As it turns out, after sorting through all the luggage tag receipt things (which had all been labeled with Andrew Bozeman's name on them), there weren't even any tags for my bag or Andrew's bag, which had also not come.
So, basically we went to the desk and had to just tell them what our bags looked like and hope that somebody could spot them. Remember those emotions that I talked about ovewhelming me back in DC? Well all those emotions were building up in my again. Only they were much, much more intense this time. The entire time we were filling out the papers about our luggage, I was holding in all my tears.
I was halfway across the world, I hadn't gotten a full night of sleep in days, I hadn't showered in days, I only had about $200 in cash with me since my card was currently not working, I only had one change of clothes that I had THANKFULLY packed in my carry-on, and it was cold!
Finally we went to join everybody else. I saw Dana Belmore and just hugged her and didn't say anything. She said "It's okay. Once you shower and get some rest, everything will be alot better. It's okay." Then I spotted Scott and I just went and hugged him and the tears were just coming and coming. I didn't want to be there at all. All I could think was that this was only the very first day! I still had 2 more weeks before I would get to leave!
A guy from Capetown, South Africa named Sam came and Scott told me to follow him. He would get me on a bus to ride to the church we were staying at, which was about an hour away. In a part of Johannesburg called Florida. Sam was so nice. He showed me where to go and helped me onto a huge blue bus thing. You had to climb up a ladder to get inside! And then on every single seat was a Vuvuzela. All of the people on the other bus/truck thing were blowing them and I really didn't have the patience for all that at that moment. Do you know what a vuvuzela is? It's this big loud horn that South Africans blow at their soccor games. I did not like them that day.
The bus (...or truck..whatever...) ride was very peaceful and relaxing. I met a few of the people that would be part of our team.
Finally, we made it to Florida Baptist Church. We found our bedrooms that were set up with mats on the floor. Let the South African Adventure begin!!
Coming up next: What God taught me the first 2 days I was there.

AMAZING SUMMER

Well, this has been an incredible summer for me! I wish I had time right now to tell absolutely everything about it. But I don't. So, little by little, I'm going to have to update this blog about all the things that have happened. But between South Africa, "Into the Woods", the Grand Canyon, and Glorieta, I've been a pretty busy girl. Plus, God's been showing and teaching me alot! I can't wait to tell you all about it!

Almost There!

It's early Tuesday afternoon during the very last week of classes. I am so ready to be finished and free for the summer. This week has been good so far, but I've been having to be patient alot. And the good news is that I think I'm really succeeding!! I sat through two very long and boring conversations yesterday, and I only got up and left them 1 time. (My excuse was that I wanted a drink of water, which I went and got.) I've been learning alot about patience lately. That's one of the many ways to show love for people. I also have learned that being patient doesn't just mean painfully enduring it. I mean, I know that in some versions of the Bible, in the fruit of the Spirit, patience is called "long suffering", but I think that even in pain and suffering we should be able to find joy. And, yes, even in long boring conversations. ;-) We're called to love. And that's one step closer towards loving peope, I think...I've really been working on that. In my relationships with friends and family. I've been trying to love. Those can be difficult, sometimes. But what's really really difficult is when you have to love people who don't love you back! Ahhh...it's exhausting! But God's teaching me alot through it. And I hope I'm growing...