The beginning of the journey...

Well... I’m in North Carolina again! It still feels a little surreal... can it really be true? Can one die from too much happiness?! :oP

I left the heat of Durban at 18:40 on the 12 January, travelled for nearly 34 hours, and arrived in Greensboro NC at 21:00 on 13 January. That does weird things to my brain :/ My route went via Dubai, so it was SUPER long. You’d think that living in multicultural South Africa would prepare one for being surrounded by interesting mixes of people. But Dubai International Airport is just CRAZY! Full of people, and it seems like every time you turn your head, you spot someone of a different nationality! It made me think how amazing heaven is going to be: what a beautiful mixture of every nation and culture :o)

Not the best pic... but here's Dubai!

After a 3 hour wait, we left Dubai for New York, a 14 hour trip. You can check out the route here (by clicking over North America, and then on New York): http://www.emirates.com/english/flash/route_map.aspx.

Somewhere between Dubai and New York...!

We arrived in a -1° C New York, with very light snow. I then had to catch a shuttle between New York JFK and La Guardia airports (did you know there are THREE airports in NY?!), and luckily had a 4 hour gap in which to do so. The trip from La Guardia to Greensboro is about 1 hour 20 minutes. I arrived in Greensboro feeling EXHAUSTED but very, VERY grateful and relieved. And when I entered the baggage claim area of the airport, I was greeted by four super friendly and excited faces, who started singing and shouting and welcoming me home :o)

After a quick stop at Chick-fill-A (yay!), we headed home to the farm. It was just SO GOOD seeing that familiar (and VERY happy-making) “A Place For the Heart” sign as we turned into the driveway. Got my stuff into my new room, and then got to bed! Woke up this morning thinking: “I’m here! I’m really here! How can I be so lucky?” And I’ve spent most of the day wondering the same thing :o) God is too, TOO, impossibly good. And this is going to be the adventure of a life-time!

This little bird's new home :o)