Overwhelmed.

Some of you may not know that my time in Ghana has come to a sudden end. My scheduled departure was June 28^th, but we received news Tuesday that my grandmother, Ruth Strother (aka Ma) has a life threatening blood clot. I decided, along with Sally (who has been here for a few weeks) and the Mozleys, that we (Sally and I) would return to the States a couple weeks early in hopes that we’ll get to spend some time with her. We attempted to change our tickets on British Air, but they couldn't get us home until the day after our scheduled flight. They could get us to London on Sunday, but obviously that wouldn't help much. So a dear dear friend gave us 2 buddy passes on Delta so that we could try to fly standby on Thursday. So Wednesday was full of packing up and running around tying up lose ends. And our stories from Thursday are below. The long and short of it is that we made it home! And I can't wait for y'all to hear how God provided for us!

But first I'll update you on Ruth/Ma. She is out of the hospital now, back in her nursing home room. She's very glad to be back. She still has the large blood clot in her left leg, and they are continuing to give her the blood thinner. She is very alert and it was so fun talking to her today! Mom and I went to see her this morning and we talked for quite a while. I showed her some pictures from Ghana...she loved that. And we talked about some of the fun things we did when I was little. She's so funny...one of the first things she said to me what "we sure did have a good time when you were young"...we talked about eating sausage biscuits on the front porch steps, drinking mint sweet tea and making cross stitch Christmas ornaments. Mentally and emotionally she is doing great. But physically she's weak. She's in pain from the blood clot, and they're keeping her in bed (not letting her sit up in her wheel chair) which she doesn't like so much.

I am so grateful that the Lord allowed us to get home and gave me this time with her. She wasn't even this alert and 'with it' when I left for Ghana last year. It is such a blessing. I am so thankful. Thank you for praying and please continue to pray. God can take that blood clot away! Nothing is too hard for Him!

Now let me tell you about all miracles in our trip home. We flew stand-by on buddy passes (given to us by our sweet sweet friend!!). When we checked in at the Accra airport, the woman told us that our chances were not good to get on the plane. The flight was overbooked by sixty people. Sixty. So we sat and waited. While we waited I just kept praying. I really didn't want to have to go through the goodbyes again...once is hard enough. And I wanted to get home to see Ma. But I knew that God was in total control and that He knew exactly when Sally and I needed to get home, so I was trusting Him with that (even though I really wanted to get on that flight!). So after about 3 hours of waiting, a lady walked in with all the boarding passes for standby passengers. They all crowded around her waiting to see if they got one. I stood back a little and waited. When it was finally my turn, I timidly asked if we were on the flight, and when she said yes I just lost it. I started weeping! I felt a little silly but I just couldn't help it. And, to top it all off, we were in business class!!! Can you believe our God!! I re-gained control by the time we got to the plane. But after sitting there a while and thinking about what God had done for me and Sally...and how it was all out of His love for us, I started crying again. He really is too good.

We arrived in New York on time, but had to sit on the runway for an hour because of all the plane traffic at JFK airport. (Mind you, our lay over at JFK was only 1 hour 50 minutes.) We cleared immigration and went to get our bags. Our flight to Atlanta was scheduled to leave at 6:50. At 6:30 Sally and I were still waiting on 2 of our bags. I had pretty much given up on that 6:50 flight...and was hoping we could get on a later one at Laguardia. Our bags finally arrived at 6:40 and we literally left them with a Delta employee to re-check for us as we RAN to the gate. I was huffing and puffing all the way to A22. When I got there, I saw that our plane was delayed by one hour! We hadn't missed it! But there were tons of people at the gate, and again the agent told us that our chances of getting on weren't great. Again I prayed and trusted that God would get us home when we needed to be there. I mean come on, look what He had already done! So we waited again...and finally the agent behind the desk called our names! And you won't believe this, but we were in first class this time! We arrived in Atlanta at midnight to a sweet reunion with mom and dad.

I'm overwhelmed. Not by reverse culture shock. Not by grief for my sweet grandmother. Not by jet lag. But by how amazing our God is. I've never personally experienced His divine provision like I did with these flights. I tasted a tiny bit of God yesterday, and boy did I see that He is good. Overwhelmed.

And one more thing that God has done for me lately. He totally prepared me for my early departure from Ghana. This past Sunday, the Mozleys threw me a surprise going away party (even though I still had 3 weeks left until I was leaving). So I got to see everyone and say "goodbye" even though I thought I'd see them all again. I'm so grateful for that time with all my friends together. So thank you all for praying! God heard you! And He moved and acted because of your prayers! Thank you for praying...not only did God get me home, but He allowed me to see more of Him through this time! Praise Him!!!!!!!!!!