Wed, December 3, 2008

It's been seven months now.

I'm going to start digesting my trip to South Africa.

I'll start by sharing my journal entries with you.

I think that will help me in the process.

Wednesday, December 3rd
I slept terrible last night. I woke up many times throughout the night and rushed to the bathroom. I'm terrified and excited at the same time. When my alarm went off at 3:10 am ... my first thought was "Thank God!" My second thought was, "Oh crap! I'm so scared!" I actually threw up many times in the shower. Lovely. I showered, packed a few last minute items and we headed out the door to pick up Jonathan and Kelly. We arrived promptly at OCC (Overlake Christian Church) at 4:30 am. Tami and J.R. were there. Jodie and Natalie arrived shortly after. We called on Kinsey who had slept through her alarm. :) J.R. drove our donation bags down (to the airport), Jay took me down, and everyone else took the shuttle.

(Kinsey, Tami, Jonathan, Kelly, Natalie, Jodie, myself)

Leaving my home and loved ones is something I can't quite get used to. I was a crying mess. I cried every 2 seconds, every time I thought of leaving. Jay was wonderful and reassuring and said everything perfect. Though I'm sure he was having feelings of his own, he kept them to himself and listening to mine.

We arrived at the airport, unloaded the vehicles and I said a very teary goodbye to Jay ... holding in sobs would be more appropriate. I collected myself, wiped away tears and we turned around to enter Sea-Tac. I (of course) turned around one more time to get a last look at my honey.

As we were walking to find our check-in counter, I got a HUGE SURPRISE! My DADDY! He has woken up early to meet me at the airport and see us all off. (My dad was originally supposed to be on the trip with us, but his work schedule wouldn't allow it and he had to cancel his South Africa plans). I am so blessed, loved and supported. I instantly burst into tears. I know ... AGAIN! My daddy. My sweetie. It was so fun seeing him. The best part of my day so far!

While we waited to check-in, we all opened our suitcases to shove in last minute donations: brochures on the advantages of breast feeding, breast feeding tubes, socks, t-shirts, etc.). We even had a good laugh when ALL the breast feeding brochures fell out and scattered all over the Sea-Tac floor.

We had a very nice check-in experience (thank you United Airlines!). Our donation bags were over our 50 pound limit. When we told our costumer service rep what we were doing and why our bags were so heavy, he waved the over-load fee. We made it through security with no mishaps and quickly found a table to eat breakfast. I wasn't hungry AT ALL and took small bites of Jodie's sandwich. Jodie surprised us with a bag of goodies and a really sweet note. Shouldn't we be giving HER a gift!?!

We boarded the plane without incident, asked a few people to switch around with us and we were able to sit by (at least) one team member. Except for Kinsey ... but I don't think she minded; she ended up having an entire row to herself to stretch out and sleep!

We're headed for our 1st stop ... Washington, D.C ... Dulles Airport.

Going to try to get some sleep ...