Saturday morning we rose for what would be a VERY long day. We packed up our things and walked to the mall in Hamilton for breakfast and flat whites (latte), then we set off for Auckland. We navigated our way to the airport without incident, returned the rental car and waited. The car had to be returned by 4pm but our flight wasn’t to leave until 9pm.
At some point (Friday night, I think) we received a call from our realtor with the French House to inform us that the vendors (sellers) had received an offer. We didn’t want to lose the house but we were also not ready to make an offer. We held our breath and prayed that if this was the house we were to buy that God would hold it until we were ready to make a move on it. Eventually, we learned that the offer was rejected. Shew!
We flew through the night on a lightly loaded plane which allowed Billy and I each to have a whole row of 3 seats to ourselves. We ate the dinner, brushed our teeth then turned in for the night. When we were approaching LA, the pilot cautioned us about opening the window shades, as the sun was up and would be blindingly bright. I can’t even begin to comprehend the time change thing. We had left NZ at 9pm Saturday night but arrived at LAX Saturday at noontime!
We had a 9 hour layover but after going through immigration, customs and rechecking our luggage, we had 6 hours to kill. We’d had enough of airports for a while and had several more hours of that still to come to we hopped in a cab and headed to the boardwalk in Santa Monica. Wow! After being in New Plymouth for over a week and having lived rural Kentucky for the past 11 years, THIS was a culture shock! The honking horns, shouting people, bumper to bumper traffic and standing room only boardwalk was overwhelming.
We ate lunch at a restaurant on the boardwalk then walked down to the beach. We sat for a while where there was nifty gym area with rings, parallel bars, high bars, and mats. It was entertaining to watch the people on these apparatuses. The beach was lovely but crowded. We watched the sun go down over the rides on the boardwalk then caught another cab back to the airport.
We board one last plane and took off for Cincinnati at 10pm. We arrived there at 6:30am, retrieved our luggage and our car and then we were FINALLY on the last leg of the trip. The kids were already at church when we got home so we quickly showered, dressed and headed to church. What a reception we received when we walked through the doors of the sanctuary! Five lit up faces and five sets of arms around us. Kaigan was running the soundboard so he saved his hugs until after the service.
The service was amazing as always and I bawled like a baby throughout. I love it when we let God show up!
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