Stranded at Christmas

Oh where to begin???

Well I began this year in London believing I would stay here for a complete year before returning home to Seattle, but because of health complications both in London and back home with my family, I decided I would make the leap and save my money to go home for Christmas, and this is how it all began....

The thought of going home for Christmas was something I would roll around in my mind in the first few months of being here, but I did not think it would actually happen.
Due to health problems, I spent many hours praying to God and consulting others about what would be the best decision about flying home in December.
We all came to the conclusion that if I could find a flight for 500 pounds or less I would go.
I quickly began checking all airlines in mid October and excitedly saw that going home was now not only a thought but an actual possibility.
I decided to save the little pocket money I was earning each month from the organization and with help from family back home I officially booked my ticket on December 5th.
School let out on the 17th so it was booked to depart on the 19th and return the 1st with a few days to come back to London time before school restarted.
After getting the booking, I thought I was now a sure deal to be home for Christmas. Boy was I wrong...

On the 18th of December, the morning before I would leave, London began to snow like no other for about 2 hours straight leaving 3 inches of snow on the ground. This was very concerning to me but I truly did not believe it would really affect my scheduled departure.

Sure enough, on the 19th I headed out of the house around 7am with a large smile on my face and announcing to my housemates that I would not be home until the 2nd, with little doubt that this would be false.

As I finally approached the airport I was in for a real surprise. Not only was every flight cancelled, but the entire place was packed to the brim like a can of sardines and me being the tall gal of 5 feet that I am, I was trampled. I fell loosing all my baggage and twisting my knee cap. Luckily, a man grabbed me and carried me and my bags to safetly where my knee immediately swelled to the size of a baseball.

Hours later I finally made it out of the airport to return home, multiple bags in hand and limping with a dysfunctional knee. When I made it home I came to remember that our internet and phone was out of comission and I was going to need to rebook my flight somewhere else.

Luckily, Tobi my house mate had a friend close by who graciously allowed me to come over and make arrangements. I spent about an hour and a half on the phone before I was finally rebooked to head out of London on the 24th and make it just in time for Christmas Eve dinner and change my return flight to the 8th.

The next day my supervisor took me to lunch and the day after that I spent sight seeing around London, places I had yet to see and needed to.
It was then Thursday the 23rd and another supervisor invited my over for lunch and company and I had a wonderful time, leaving saying goodbye and I would see her in a few weeks.

HA

On the 24th I woke up around 3 am and decided to check my flight was on time before jumping out of bed and getting ready to depart. This is when I was again faced with the saddness that my flight was cancelled due to snow in Dublin, a layover I was booked on.

With loud sobs and cries, I called United and was FINALLY rebooked once again to now leave on Christmas mid day and arrive in Seattle on the 26th at 11 am.

Convinced I was spending Christmas alone, I went back to sleep. Around 8 am I was awoken to my telephone ringing by both my supervisors insisting I spend Christmas eve with them and they would take me to the airport on Christmas since all public transport would be closed.

My bags were all packed and by the door and when Rebecca, a supervisor, picked me up around 4pm I was ready to see some people and celebrate what I did have to be thankful for and leave my own self pity party.

That night was absolutely lovely to say the least and although it is not the Christmas Eve I expected, it was definately beautiful and one I will never forget.

The next morning Santa found me! Even in a different house miles away in London! =] This was very exciting and put me right back into the Christmas spirit!
Around noon Edward, supervisors hubby, drove me to the airport to prepare for my 4:20 pm flight to WA DC and then connecting to Seattle. All went well to start with as all bags were checked and I was ready to depart. We were all loaded on the plane when an announcer came on saying there were maintenance issues and we would be delayed.

At this point I turned to the guy next to me and could not help but burst out into uncontrollable laughter. I mean what was I to do? Seriously, this could only happen to me! haha! So an hour after being told we would depart we set off on a 8 hour flight and made it safely to WA DC!!

Once landing there, I had to claim my bag and recheck it because I was spending the night in the airport due to a 12 hour layover before leaving for Seattle.
When I went to get my bag, it was no where to be found and after many calls and panic from me, it was found in the wrong terminal and an hour later back to me.
I then checked it, headed through security, made the mandantory calls home, grabbed my complimentary pillow and blanket, set my alarm and went to sleep on the rows of chairs.
After a pretty much sleepless night, I stood up ready to get on my next flight and be in Seattle.

This is when I decided to check the board one last time and saw those evil red bolded letters saying DELAYED. At this point I really couldn't tell you what went through my mind, and as I quietly made it up to customer service I stood motionless as they told me they had operational problems and it would be at least an hour delayed.

Pshhh an hour I thought no big deal. So I gratefully took the little bag full of complimentary goodies, including a tooth brush, comb, and lip balm, and went to sit in the gate until my flight was called.

You see this is where I am now. Literally as I write this they are calling that we will be boarding in 10 minutes and to say the least, I am ecstatic!!!!

This may be a typical travel story for many of you, but for me this seemed like a section from the movie Planes, Trains, and Automobiles!

So it is now the 26th of December, I have missed Christmas, but nonetheless, I should be home around noon today and when that happens, everything that went wrong this last week will no longer matter. Because I will be in the arms of the people who mean the most to me, and although I may have missed the day of Christmas, this truly is the best gift I could have ever received!!!

Love to all and Merry Christmas from London and Washington DC and soon to be Seattle =]

End of first term

Again I start this blog sending out apologies on my lack of posts lately allowing you all to see the journey I am on.

Today is December 11 and in just 8 days I will be flying across the pond to spend a much needed Christmas with my family and friends!! To back up a little I will let you all know that going home for Christmas was never in the plan when I left to come here. I was prepared to spend a full year in London and see you all again next summer, but as luck would have it, God had much better plans for me!! He made it possible for me to come home knowing how badly I need it amongst the struggles I have been facing over here. Of course, thank you Anna and Mommy and Jess for helping with the support to get me over there!! I look forward to heating and real food and most importantly the beautiful faces I have come to love soo much!! =]

This is my last week of teaching before next year and as I say goodbye to my kids for the holidays I can't help but feel that I will miss them dearly while I am gone. Many of them have made leaps and bounds in progress since the beginning of the year and this brings me to tears!! One of my children who has it particularly rough has been invited to bake cookies with me and another volunteer after school this week to give him that bit of extra love he so badly needs!
Others, I have not seen so much progress in and that is always difficult, but it is a constant reminder about how much these kids really need from me!
I am already thinking about how hard it is going to be when I come home for good and cannot continue to boost them on their journeys and tell them everyday how much they mean to me, I guess I will just be writing lots of letters =]

Most of you who read this will see me soon and get to hear many more stories about just what I am going through over here, but I can say without reserve, this has been the HARDEST most CHALLENGING year of my life, and I still have 9 more months to go!

At the end of most days I find myself on my knees praying to God to help these children and to give them hope, more than I ever could.

Keep sending those prayers my way, not only for my strength but for the impact in my kids lives and for them to just feel Gods love!!
I love you all so much and you better believe I am running around the house everyday excitedly singing "Ill be home for Christmas"!!

My housemates are wonderful and I have definately made some life long friends here and I absolutely love them to death! There is always something exciting going on over here in London which I am sure you can imagine. My supervisors at one of my schools are like surrogate mummys and always taking care of me! I am so blessed to have them. I believe they are my own personal guardian angels!

Ok I know I am rambling on but I just want you all to have a little insight into my daily life and know how much I love and miss you all! =]

Cheers!

God's Plan

So I apologize for being so delayed at writing my next update on here. I know I said I would write once a week but realistically it is looking like it will be closer to once a month! I just got back from Ireland where I spent 4 days touring Dublin and seeing the sights. School is on break this week for half-term which they have about every month and a half because they go year round. The days off were much needed as I finally have recovered from the bladder infection that I could not shake for about a month. I have been staying in bed mostly everyday since returning from Dublin so that I will be fully rejuvenated to go back to school tomorrow! I actually miss my little kiddos and am ready to see them again =]

The weather here is not much different from Washington but because I don't have a car and I walk everywhere it seems so much colder! I was not prepared for this and was so very very blessed to have a wonderful lady from Lake City send me 2 sets of scarves, hats, and gloves. My mom is still collecting more and preparing to send me a big package filled with them!!

I have found a church here called All Souls that I absolutely love. I spent the first 2 months here trying out different churches and many of them were great but not the one I was looking for. The first Sunday I attended All Souls I had this overwhelming feeling that God was saying this was to be my home for the next year! They also have this amazing student group that meets every Wednesday for dinner and Bible Study and encouragement! We have begun studying the book of Exodus and are going to plunge through it over this next year, I can't wait! I have already connected to many people there and also found an older church member to meet with a couple times a month and read the Bible together which is soo fascinating to me! I would love to bring this idea back to Lake City college group next year =]

I have heard here and there about some people planning on visiting me from Washington this year and that really keeps my spirits high as sometimes it can feel like I'm out here alone. I had no idea this year was going to be so challenging and really force me to realize how much I have to rely on God. I have began my own personal devotional to spend the year doing as well, along with a devotional starting between me and my housemates. I am really getting lots of love from Jesus over here and I am so excited to continue listening for His plans for me! Jeremiah is what I am studying right now and I have began memorizing some verses and writing them around my rooms to constantly remind me that I am no skilled to understand what God has willed and planned for me! It is all up to Him! Jeremiah 29:11

Ok well I would love to hear from you guys and see what's going on back at home as well because it makes me feel like I'm still there in spirit!!

Loving and missing you Washingtonians!!!

Cheers! =]

soo sick in the city =[

Well as I am sure many of you have already seen on my facebook, I have been very ill the last week and a half. It all started with a simple bladder infection, so I went to the local clinic and got a 3 day regimen of anti biotics and told that I would be fine in a few days. After taking my first dose of meds I started throwing up and continued to throw up and be very sick and bed ridden the next 3 days as I completed the regimen. After that I thought I felt better and I went back to teaching for two days. On Wednesday night I began feeling very bad pain in my lower back side and called the nurse who told me it may be my kidneys and to go to the hospital the next morning.
Thursday I called into school to let them know what was going on, that I was going to the doctor and then would come in later to teach my kids. When I got to the ER i found out I had a temp. of 102, high blood pressure, and my bladder infection back, but this time more severe. Then I was also told that because my bladder was so inflamed my muscles around it became strained and one tore.
The doc then put me on bedrest with yet another 7 day anti biotics treatment.
Long story short I have been drinknig cranberry juice in the liters, sleeping all day, and finally beginning to restore my strength.

I am so blessed to have so many "mums" here who have been taking such good care of me, making me home-made chicken soup and making sure I have everything I need! I am missing my students alot and hope to be back to teaching this next week!!

Pray pray pray that I have finally kicked this infection out!

Week 1 of teaching!

Ok so I made it through the first week at my schools. I work in two schools and i have 11 kiddos. I absolutely adore them. They are from year 2 to 6 which is like 2nd grade to 6th. I spent most of the week watching my supervisors teach them so I could get the idea and lots of time learning how to write lesson plans. By Friday I taught my first lesson alone and am able to write my own plans! I also have had to do lots of IEP which are individualized education plans for each child which take FOREVER! I have a few children with autism, some with severe ADHD and dylexia as well. It is so hard to see them suffering literally to tears wanting so badly to understand but not being able to get it. Almost all of them come from homes where their parents are either never around or are always putting them down. This is why it is so important to continually reassure them about how well they are doing and how special they are to me. Everytime they come for their lesson they are so excited and they tell me it is the best part of their day which brings tears to my eyes! It can be sooo challenging at times when no matter how many times you explain something or teach it they still do not catch on, in these moments I remind myself that I may be the only person in their lives who believes in them and this thought gives me all the patience I could need. Every morning I get up and praise the Lord that I am so lucky to be a part of these children's lives!

Me and one of my housemates are excited to start a nightly devotional together to keep us on track with the Lord and remember to continue to listen to His plans for us! The Lord is doing some pretty amazing things through me and I cannot wait to see how much more is to come!

Missing my Washintonian buddies and loving you all! I think and pray for you all the time! =]

Training!

Today I was in training for working in the schools all day long. It is so interesting to see how vowel sounds and words here are so different sounding from Washington. I am having a particularly hard time pronouncing o and u sounds and have to practice alot! One of the other volunteers says I already have started to sound a bit British and I have barely been here a week! It will be weird to see how I sound when I come back after a year. All I have really been eating still is chicken nuggets which is probably more just a comfort food because it is the only thing that tastes the same over here. My feet are covered in blisters because we walk everywhere and I have not gotten used to that at all. I feel like I have known these people forever and I am so excited to be spending a year with them although we sometimes bicker like siblings =] I have not done a whole lot of sight seeing yet as I am still settling in and I have training all day tomorrow as well. Then next Monday through Thursday I will be at a conference in Northern London and I officially start in the schools next Friday...YAY! I am so excited to meet my kiddos =] Well keep sending those prayers my way and I love and miss you all! Cheers =]

First days in London

When I first saw the lights of London I was more excited than I have ever been! It is so incredible here and everyones accent is soo cool! They use words much different then ours like a "rubber" is a pencil eraser! haha Also they do not have outlets in the bathrooms so we do our hair in the living room and it is very odd. It is such a different culture here I had no idea! Of course everyone sees me as the typical loud american but they don't seem to mind too much! Today I did not even wake up until 3 pm because I am still so jet lagged and really not used to it. The food is not very good, but I was prepared for this and I am getting quite the work out walking around everywhere. 2 of my 3 roomates have moved in, one a girl from Northern England and a boy from Germany. They are both soo nice and we instantly bonded. We had our first cooked meal of pasta tonight together and it was so cute. I also went to church today which is very different here but many of the same songs. After, we all went out to the pub for my first time and had my first legal glass of wine =] I have training for school this Thursday and then more next Monday but I believe I start school with the kids next Thursday so that is exciting! I have soo much more to tell but I fear I am dragging on a bit so I will end it until next time. Cheers!

ICELAND!

Well I have reached Iceland which means I am only hours away from landing in London. Iceland is so weird because it is all green but SOOO cold! No one here seems to speak english and the airport is quite different from anything I have seen in the states. It is also the first airport to not have free wi fi which also happens to be my longest layover, go figure! I am finally feeling a little better but when I first left to leave I cried and cried for the first two plane rides. I even ran back to my mom like 6 times before I actually made it to security! Saying good bye was alot harder than I thought but I am all too excited to say hello to many new people. I met a Londoner in Boston who told me alot about what to expect and got my spirits high with lots of exciting information! It is funny to see people who have actually come to Iceland to vacation. I will be posting picture when I hit London and can use my computer but until then Hello from Iceland, or should I say Halló!

Before I go...

It is just 3 days before I depart on the biggest adventure of my life to serve the Lord in London. I will be working in public schools with disabled children outreaching to them and teaching them literacy. My goal is to get on here at least once a week while I'm there to keep everyone updated! Please keep me in your prayers throughout the next year! I leave thursday August 26th at 5 am. Get ready because here we go....