Yay!! We’re home!!!! It’s hot. I mean… really, really hot. We’ve had those sleep shattering storms at night interrupting our attempts to get full nights of deep rest. But. BUT!!! We’re home. And this is home. Heat, storms, loud chickens everywhere, dogs crying through the nights, and we’re happy. We’re grateful to our team for pulling together and allowing us a full break from everything, including most of Brian’s director duties. We were not feeling so magnanimous towards the aforementioned list back in June. The break was fully necessary and we’re feeling so refreshed.

The actual trip home was immensely difficult. There was sickness, a delayed start, tired kids, and bad food. We were bumped from our last flight and thought Ray was going to be sick again in the middle of the Port Moresby airport. The airline staff asked us to wait many hours to try and get on the afternoon flight, but seeing our predicament they put us up in a day room at a nearby hotel. As we gathered our energy to face maybe getting on the afternoon flight… maybe not… but definitely hours in the heat at the domestic terminal, I asked Ray if she thought she could do it. She was curled up on her side in the bed and didn’t respond immediately. She thoughtfully responded, “Yes. Yes, I can do it. I feel sick, but I know we’re close to home and I can do whatever I need to do just to get there where we can all rest. That’s where I’m going to feel better.”

That’s our girl. All of them. Such travel warriors. Thank you for praying for them and us. As awful as the trip was, we could tangibly see how God was caring for us all the way through. We were warmly greeted at the airport by our team here rejuvenating all three girls. As Ray said… we just needed to get here.