UPDATE!!

Ok....so it's been almost a month since I left Gabon...which is absolutely crazy! Time has flown by! I'm sorry for not updating sooner, but I only had like 4 days at home before I had to be back at school. Hope I didn't leave anyone hangin' :). For those of you who don't know about my crazy adventure home, I'll give you a quick Reader's Digest version...
We were supposed to fly out of Gabon on Thursday, Aug. 13th at 12:30 am. However, when we went to the airport Thursday night we saw that our flight had been cancelled. Tim went to find out what was going on and found out that the airline we used-Royal Air Maroc- had gone on strike yet again! I was really homesick at this point and I was so disappointed when I found out! I broke down and cried at the airport...pretty embarrassing haha! Something about Africa just makes me more emotional I guess :). So anyway, that night Royal Air Maroc put us up in their hotel in Libreville...which by the way was super nice..5 stars baby! AND it was free...including meals and room service! Needless to say, we got tons of food and actually ended up having a good time. The next day, Friday, we were told that our flight would leave at the same time as the night before-12:30. We all went out for pizza before going to the airport. While we were eating, Tim got a call from the Air Maroc guy in Gabon saying that there was no flight and that the pilots were still on strike. At this point, I was just mad! I wanted to change my flight to Air France and just get out of there! God was definitely teaching me patience and teaching me to trust in Him. So, we stayed another night at the hotel. The guy told us that another company would come and fly us out on Saturday at 2:30pm. So we got to the airport around 11am to check our luggage the next day. It took FOOOOREVER because everything was so backed up from the strike. We finally got through and said our goodbyes to everyone. It was a bittersweet moment...I knew I would miss everyone but I was so ready to go home too. We went through customs smoothly and then all bought some chocolate to eat while we waited for our flight. We were all looking for a while to see which plane might be ours. However, plane after plane boarded and our plane was nowhere in sight. We saw on the monitor that it said our flight was now at 7:30pm. I was so fed up at this point....I thought that no one in this stinkin' airport had any idea what they were doing! I honestly thought that there was no plane coming. We found a lady who let us use her phone to call Tim. He said there wasn't really anything he could do just yet, and that we should call him if the plane still didn't come at 7:30. We all felt really helpless...here we are in an international airport with workers who don't know what the heck is going on...we don't speak the language...we don't know when or if our plane is coming. It was a crazy, very hard time. We all really had to support one another....we got together in a circle and prayed that God would just take care of the situation. I felt more at peace after that. We passed the 8 HOURS by playing cards and sleeping. Finally, our plane did arrive! We flew out of Libreville at 8pm and arrived in Casablanca, Morrocco at around 2am. We weren't leaving until like 11am the next day so we went to the Air Maroc office to get a hotel like we did on the way over. The office was PACKED because of back up from the strike. A man working told us that there were no more rooms at the hotel. We asked him where we were supposed to sleep and he basically said he didn't care. JERK! haha. Finally, we talked to a really sweet lady who called another hotel. She got us and a few other people rooms there for the night. We rode a bus for about 45 minutes to get to the hotel and crashed! It was probably around 3:30am at this time. We all woke up the next morning, showered, ate breakfast, and caught the bus back to the airport. On the way there, a guy riding said that the flight to New York had been cancelled. That made us all worry...but we didn't freak out just yet. We got the the airport and went through security. Then we had to catch a bus to another terminal to get to international flights. (Might I mention that we got the time change wrong, so we were an hour late getting there...we were running to catch the bus and our flight). We met this really sweet lady who was also going to New York. On our bus ride, we all prayed again and she prayed with us. We got the terminal and found out that the flight hadn't been cancelled, thank God! The lady said that our prayer had worked....I don't know if she was a Christian or not, but I hope we touched her in some way. So we FINALLY FINALLY flew to the U.S.!!! I was so happy when I got to NYC! It was an amazing feeling. All the interns had to rush to catch our next flights, so we quickly said goodbye. It was really sad. After, I flew to Charlotte, NC. In Charlotte, I met a really cute old man who was going to see his sick brother in Jacksonville. I told him about my mission trip and he told me he went to church and they sent a lot of youth on mission trips. I told him I would pray for his brother, and he really appreciated it. Meeting him really helped me make it the last leg of the trip...who knows..he could have been God's angel :). When I got to Jacksonville, I cried because I was so happy! My mom and dad were there waiting for me with signs and flowers:). My mom was crying her eyeballs out haha. AAAAAAND..my boyfriend Aaron surprised me by coming with them to pick me up! He is so sweet :). So that is my long and crazy journey home. I think it was the last stretch God had for me before I ended my trip.
Since I've been home, everything has just been extremely busy. I knew it would be...especially with school. Sometime I forget I even went this summer.....which is really weird! But then random little things will remind me of Gabon....like singing in French for voice lessons or hearing any song from Top Gun on the radio haha (the interns know what I'm talking about...). I'm still processing all that happened this summer and probably will be for awhile. I do know that God taught me so much and I will never be the same. I want to again thank EVERYONE who supported me and prayed for me....I know I couldn't have done it without you! This will probably be my last blog post....but if anyone has any questions about my trip....or just wants to find out more you can email me: Lherndon@tfc.edu
Love you everyone!!