Trip Time!

This past six months in Africa has been one of the hardest seasons ever. Possibly one of the very hardest of my life. It definitely rivals our very first six months in this country over six years ago… and that initial adjustment was pretty darn rough.

In August after we finally got our visas, we really felt the need to take a little vacation and get some perspective and rest. However, at that point in time I was spending most every day lying in bed sick because of little one in the belly! We thought how silly it would be to travel somewhere fun and then I’d just be in a different country doing the exact same thing… laying in bed and complaining. That didn’t quite seem worth it.

THEN we opened a preschool and have been running the preschool and doing a million other things (it feels like). And our chance for a little trip faded in the past in the midst of the whirlwind.

However, another chance has arisen! Glory be! A local holiday is coming up so there will be a break from preschool. And two INCREDIBLE friends have agreed to run the school for me for an extra week so we could take a trip. Wow!!

We discovered that we had enough frequent flier miles to fly the family round trip for free (well, some small fees are required) anywhere in Africa. Really?!  Anywhere in Africa?! And if you can go anywhere in Africa on uber-cheap tickets… you may go as far as geographically possible, right? Cause that costs the same as flying next door and frankly, who wants to go next door when you can go anywhere?!

And so tomorrow we fly to South Africa! Woot woot!

As we booked our tickets, we were blown away at the savings. God ALWAYS provides for our needs, but He also blesses us so much beyond the basics, often in creative ways…

We got 4 award travel tickets (frequent flier miles baby!) for 50,000 miles and a fee of $102.40. A hundred bucks?! That’s it?

We cracked up, because before we confirmed our purchase we were given the option to pay full price for the tickets (the pic above)… maybe we’d prefer to pay the $3,323.60 it should cost us?  Um… NO THANKS PEOPLE! We’ll pay the hundred bucks and take our tickets without chucking out three thousand, thankyouverymuch!

Such a blessing. People who don’t save frequent flier miles are nuts. No offense. I’m just sayin’!!

Aaaanyway, beyond that, Mike’s buddy from years and years ago has hooked us up BIG TIME with some incredible housing and vehicles to drive. We were ready to stay in a hostel or whatever cheap accommodations we could find, but once again, God has blown us away and blessed our socks off (actually… our socks on, in this case!) with His provision through His generous children.

Such a blessing. Huge.

Speaking of socks, I’ve had to dig out all of our warm clothing in preparation for this trip. It’s supposed to be 50-80F in South Africa and frankly that may as well be sub-zero to our bodies which are accustomed to this here Sahara Desert. We are gonna be cold I’m afraid! So I’m pulling out all of our warm things, including socks which we haven’t worn in months and months. When my boy H realized he was going to get to wear socks he got SO excited.  He jumped up and down and gave me a big kiss and hug. You’d think I’d have just given him a puppy. Nope… just a promise that he can wear socks.  Ha! How life in Africa changes our perspective in so many areas…

He is equally excited to get to eat cereal. And for some reason I can’t stop thinking about cream cheese!! We’re going to drive on some coastal roads, see us some safari animals, meet up with old and new friends and do other ‘normal’ things that will be so refreshing to us. It’ll be nice to have a break from the third-world.

Once again, all glory goes to Jesus for this incredible opportunity, who gives us SO much more than we could dream of or will ever EVER deserve. We’d be fine if we didn’t get to travel this year and we know most people never get to take trips like this. We are humbled at the lives and opportunities God has given us. I get tears in my eyes when I think of the ways He’s blessed us in travel in the past and in the present. I really feel He shows His love for us in this way and my heart is so grateful. So so grateful.

I can’t wait!