Pre-flight

Hello there.

I haven't actually zipped shut my suitcases yet because everything I've got is in them and I've got one more night at home.  But tomorrow I'll sit on them to zip 'em shut :-) and around noon (California Time) we'll be leaving to drive to San Francisco (which takes awhile from the house) to get me through all the airport red tape so I can be on a British Airways plane that leaves at 6:55 PM tomorrow night.  It's a 10' 05" flight.  Oh boy.

But then... ENGLAND!  Huzzah!!!  I am incredibly excited!!!  Yesterday I felt scared for the first real & extended time, but after - ahem - letting that out, I've been quite chipper about my upcoming flight ever since!  I'll start having "real" blogs for you after I get there.

I first began traveling overseas when I was 6 years old.  My 7th birthday was celebrated in Kenya, Africa - we were there for about 2 weeks.  Since Africa (my first mini-adventure), I've been richly privileged (a benefit of home-schooling's scholastic flexibility; I'd imagine it'd be hard to airlift a private school...) to spend time in Jamaica (10 days), Jordan & Egypt in 5 weeks (2.5 in each), Honduras (10 days), Italy/Austria/Germany/France-2 weeks, Jordan again for 6 weeks (longest away from home) and then Bermuda for 10 days.  I love traveling and I love other cultures and I love being out of the States.

I am about to be in a new country & new culture for approximately 10 MONTHS.

The only thing I can imagine about this upcoming trip is a possible list of places to visit in whatever free time comes my way.  I'm thrilled by this new leaf!  And on top of that, this leaf is from a brand new tree!

I pray that I'll be sensitive to God's leading and soft enough for His use of me and the gifts He's given to me.  Please pray for my relationship with God.  I can't give what I don't have.  And however imperfectly it's been, I've been pursuing God all my life: when I let my determination to spend time with Him slip because I'm discouraged for whatever "reasonable" reason, I begin to misrepresent myself and Him.  My desire is that any & all feelings of disorientation will drive me to rely on God more, rather than less.  Please pray that I'll be both teachable and giving.  Pray for a growing spirit of service.  That's why I'm going in the first place - this is not supposed to be about me, but about God- everything is supposed to lead back to Him.  It's my sincere hope that aside from informational updates & anecdotes that my blog relays to any & all reading how wonderful and worthy Jesus is.  That God is love and we know God through what Jesus did and that His Holy Spirit is always with us to comfort and to counsel.

I'm not a great one for endings, but I'm a great one for tangents.

Goodnight & God bless you.

(Err... semi-good morning: it's 1:40 AM!  Who's scurrying off to bed?  That'd be me...)