There's No Place Like Home

As we were getting ready to land in Myrtle Beach, I got butterflies in my stomach. No, I was not airsick. I was so excited to see my family! My trip to Haiti had officially ended and now it was time to get back to the real world.

As we got off the plane and started walking to the baggage claim, Ed asked me if my Mom was picking me up. I said, "Of course! And I bet she has an entire band waiting to welcome us home!". This was said with a hint of sarcasm, but for anyone who knows my mother, she does not do anything small. She goes all out for everything! I do love this about her (even though sometimes I don't act like it).

We got onto the escalator and headed down, and this is what I saw

My adorable mother and sister were waiting for me with this enormous sign and flowers!
My brother-in-law was there also, but he refused to hold the sign. I don't blame him! Ha Ha!

I was so excited to see them!
They were super excited to see me too!

It was such a wonderful feeling to know how much they missed me and to see all of the effort they went to to make my homecoming so special! I absolutely loved it! I have such a wonderful and supportive family!

Some of the other team member's families were there, so it was good to see/meet them! Everyone was busy hugging and talking with one another and their families, it was a joyous time!

We gathered ourselves together and headed toward baggage claim to get all of our bags. As we were walking, I was trying to tell my mom and sister everything. As you can imagine, this was hard. How could I explain my entire trip in 5 minutes!

At this point I was glowing! My sister kept telling me over and over again how different I looked. I asked her if that was a good thing or a bad thing. She said it was a good thing. She said that she thought I looked great! Well, I felt great! I had just had the experience of a lifetime, made great friends, became closer to God, and helped people along the way! Of course I was great! Not to mention I got a little Haitian tan too!

My family knew most of the team (from church and the community), but for the ones they did not know, I introduced them. I wanted them to meet the people who I shared such an amazing experience with. Plus, I knew I would be telling many stories and I wanted them to have a name with a face!

Before I knew it, our luggage had arrived. It was extremely obvious which bags belonged to our team. They were beaten up and covered in red clay! We had to unpack some of the big boxes so we could get our fragile souvenirs out. Everything made it safely and intact!

During this process my sister grabbed my left hand and looked at it. I was shocked and asked her what that was about. She said, " I thought you would have come back engaged or adopted a baby". I laughed so hard! I don't know about getting engaged, but I certainly would have brought back all of the babies if I could! My sister is too funny!

Now that we had all of our belongings, it was time to go home. I said goodbye to my team, my friends. It was sad, but at the same time I was okay with it. I knew that we would all stay in touch somehow and that we would see each other again, one day!

As I walked out of the airport and the cool autumn air hit my cheeks. I looked at my family, took a deep breath and said to myself

THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME!