The Day Came

(Written on my way)

The day came. I tottered onto the plane with way too much in my arms. Up, up, and up I went over houses the size of mustard seeds. I passed over scribbled streams, undulating hills, and trees, oh so many trees. Then suddenly they were gone, and all was white. I cried again. My family, my home, my state, all out of my sight. I was again suctioned to my seat and I rose through the white-out. And then there were camels and fish, dinosaurs and creatures Dr. Seuss never thought to create. Piles upon piles of clouds like mashed potatoes at the largest Thanksgiving feast you’ve ever seen. They swirled across the sky, and lied on nothing. How do they do that? What is a cloud anyway? Dust, yes. Gas, yes. Water, yes. But really, what is a cloud? Why do they do what they do? I wondered to myself and smiled for the first time that hour.

My eyes burned with the tears I have cried today for the people I’ve left behind. (And also from the place my brother Riley head butted me this morning.) I leave so many loves in America. My beautiful family first. We hugged and cried this morning as if I boarded for the war. Then they all lined up at the chain link fence on the outskirts of the runway and waved at me from inside the plane. It is so hard to leave them. I also had a posse of my nursing classmates, arrayed in their new scrubs, coming from their new jobs as real nurses. Many dear friends stood in the airport with me and said good-bye. I was a soggy-eyed girl all day, but somehow made it on that plane and the next. I am now in Amsterdam for the next 18 hours. I plan to sleep it away and hit the ground running tomorrow.

God is so faithful to me. He brought me to this point despite my ignorance and my short comings. I am not big enough to stand in the way of an almighty God and His plans, for which I am thankful. I am looking so forward to serving this God this year, the designer of my life and of the clouds. Ready or not, Ethiopia, here I come.