Made It

I am happy to announce that I am officially back in the U.S. Thanks so much for your prayers for the trip. The Lord's care was so evident all along the way. I'll try to enumerate a few things, but He did so much that I'm sure I'll leave out something.

First, we were scheduled to leave on our first flight on Saturday afternoon, then spend the night in the capital city of PNG before flying on to Australia on Sunday. Well, the flight was cancelled (due to mechanical issues, I think). But that seeming setback saved us the cost of a hotel in the capital. Also, by the time the flight was cancelled, all the stores were closed, but we had just enough food left in the guest house to cover our supper and breakfast needs.

Then the next morning, the airline scheduled an additional later flight to take care of the passengers on the cancelled flight. That flight would have been too late for us to make our Australia connection though, but our incredibly diligent PNG travel agent made sure that we were booked on the first flight of the day, even coming to the airport to see us off. Then when we arrived in the capital, we got held up going through immigration, but again because of our travel agent's work, they held the plane until we got on, closing the door only after we arrived.

When we landed in Australia, I had a lot of energy and was able to deal with customs and immigration there without any problems. The Lord provided a hotel and a good night's sleep. I was pretty exhausted in the airport the next morning, but we had plenty of time so we were able to sit down and rest as I needed. Again, a very helpful airline representative made sure we were seated together and even straightened out an issue with Jennifer's return ticket.

We landed in LA with less than two hours to collect our baggage, clear customs, get rechecked, and get boarding passes for the next flight. Thankfully, my earlier exhaustion was gone and I was able to practically run through the airport and again we were some of the last few people on the plane.

What a blessing to land in Atlanta and find my dad and brother waiting for me. I am pretty exhausted today and still way behind on sleep, but the hard part is over. I went to an Urgent Care center today to get a referral to a rheumatologist (the kind of doctor that treats lupus). I was told that there are only 2 in Greenville and that it will likely be a few weeks before I can get an appointment. But the Lord is in control of that too!

Thanks once again for all your prayers and support. They mean so much!