Dear America

I arrived safely on Tuesday morning. Doug almost managed to sneak up on me in the airport after my arrival but I turned around when he was about 30 feet away, shrieked out his name with total excitement and disbelief that I was almost in his arms, clapped my hands twice (I have no idea why!), and ran toward him. It was unbelievable to get to hug him. And then shocking again when I looked into his face. Skype has been wonderful, don't get me wrong. I'm so thankful for it, but the ability to look someone in the eyes and have them look back into yours is just not available on Skype. I couldn't believe we were actually there, in eachothers arms, looking into eachother's eyes! Wow! After seven months of skype, skype, skype this was a HUGE treat. We didn't have anything to say to eachother for about 10 minutes except "I don't know what to say!" "I'm so happy to see you", "I'm so glad you're here", "I've missed you so much". The trip itself was very long, somewhat interesting (since I'd never traveled overseas before), and it was tiring. I had plenty of time during my layovers to relax, get non-airplane food to eat, and walk around. During my longest flight from San Francisco to Auckland, New Zealand, I was blessed to be able to sleep nearly the whole time. It was 13 hour flight and with the help of melatonin I slept about 12 of those hours. There was nobody in the seats next to me and we flew west with the night (which meant it was dark the entire time), so I stretched out covered myself up with a blanket, and slept. I don't think I would have survived the rest of the trip very well with out that sleep. Three days later I'm still suffering from a little jet lag, but doing pretty well. My room is so fresh, comfortable, cozy, inviting, and breezy warm. Everything is unpacked and settled in. I've already had many soothing cups of tea with milk and honey, and lots of nice long conversations with Isabel (Doug's lovely mom) and Laura (his sweet sister). I'm definitely enjoying it here so far. Please don't stop praying for me and Doug! There's so much to commit to the Lord. A lot is unknown. Any time you're in a relationship that's not sealed with the covenant of marriage there's the very real possibility that things could go either way. That's hard to think about, but sometimes necessary in order to keep a level head about everything. We both covet your prayers. Please pray that the Lord will prepare us for WHATEVER is ahead (it's going to have it's hard points either way things go). I want so much to learn to trust the Lord and be willing and obedient to do whatever he calls me to. I feel so incapable of that and need continual prayer for that growth and maturity that He calls us each to. Please, please pray. Love to you all.