Stuck...

Just an hour before i was headed to the airport to wait for the third day in a row i was sitting trying to talk myself into being thankful for the little things going on around me. I was trying to remind myself that i am safe, i don't have a family or home that has been destroyed by a storm. I am also not someone who is waiting to fly home to New York to possibly...nothing. Now i sit here eating lunch truly beginning to realize just how grateful i really am. Yes, i hate being in the airport for hours and hours for days. But if i had gotten on the plane on monday i wouldn't have met two missions teams, one of which has kind of taken me on as another member of their team. I wouldn't have heard the story of a precious South African man who drove me to the airport this morning or had that great conversation with the 22 year old man who made my dinner at my hotel last night. I wouldn't have been blessed by the smile of a beautiful woman who buried her husband last week. Sometimes it does feel hopeless and that i will be stuck here forever but when i look around on that plane, instead of getting on a plane with complete strangers i will be sharing a flight with real people who i can now call friends. 

Wherever i am through this journey i seem to keep finding mothers who take care of me. In KFC an indian woman wanted to call me later to make sure i was safe and okay. In line yesterday i stood by a woman who later would come up to me just to make sure i was still doing alright. And not to mention the many people who put me before themselves in line because they know my own mother wants me home since it has been so long. So yes i am dying to get called to be on that 19 hour flight home but i would be blind if i didn't see the joy that surrounds me. This is entire experience is reminding me that when i am stuck anywhere; maybe a christmas shopping line, the doctors waiting room or even in church that the people around me are not just bodies but they are people with stories that may even change your life forever. So next time you are annoyed at a long line stop! Why not open your mouth and ask the other annoyed person next to you their name! Just try it!

Hope you are blessed! I am! 

Wow! The Joburg airport is listening to country music! Ha!