I'm thinking this will be my last exclusively Haiti blog. Of course I'll probably keep writing about what God continues doing in my life through Haiti, but as far the Haiti "narrative," the story is coming to an end.
The next day we left for the airport about 9 with plenty of time to get to our plane, just in case something went wrong. While we were waiting we saw a few relief planes landing, a couple from the US, one from Brazil, and one from a country who's flag we couldn't recognize.
Getting through customs was mostly painless, so we got to our gate with a ton of time to sit, grab some Duty-Free Domincan coffee, and see some search and rescue dogs unloaded from a plane that landed while we were waiting. We met a group of people on a missions trip who were in Port-au-Prince during the earthquake, the embassy was evacuating them though the Domincan. They had been in a grocery store just before the earthquake hit, when they got out of the store the ground started shaking and they turned around when it was all over to see the store collapsed behind them. They were already running late for dinner because they had been at the store, when they got back to Wall's guesthouse (the guesthouse our group uses when they have to stay overnight in Port-au-Prince), it was collapsed too. They were traveling home with nothing but the clothes they were wearing at the time of the quake and envelopes from the Embassy stamped "HAITI EVACUEE."
Flying home definitely came along with a huge range of emotions. On one hand, I couldn't believe we were actually leaving already. Right away when the earthquake hit, most of us figured we would probably be in Bayonnais for a while and now we were getting out practically on schedule. At the same time, I knew that one of the best things in the world was going to be getting the chance to see my family that night. I had gotten the chance the night before to talk to them on the phone for a couple minutes the night before using Eyleen's skype account, but it was going to be amazing to see them for real and just wrap them up in hugs. I couldn't wait to see them. Then there were the thoughts lingering in the back of my mind that we were actually leaving while there was so much need behind us. Add all that to the physical and emotional exhaustion of the last two days and you can imagine how great of a spot I was in.
Our plane ride to Miami was pretty short. When we went through customs to go back into the US the guys who checked me in went through the basic questions, one of the last ones he asked me was how long I was in the Domincan. "One day," I said, and he just looked at me like, "Really?" Then, you could see all the dots connect. "Oh, were you in Haiti," he asked looking pretty concerned at this point. I told him I was and then we chatted for a bit about our project and he ended our conversation with one last question, "So are you ever going to go back?" Without hesitation I replied that of course I would be going back, as soon as possible. He looked a little surprised and sent me off with a smile and then headed to another desk to get a new boarding pass because we had already missed our connecting flight. I wondered to myself how the customs agent really could expect any other answer, how could I not want to get back to as soon as I could?
On our way to the ticket desk, we saw a group of people who had been coming from Haiti too as thye met their families out side the terminal. Understandably they had a pretty emotional reunion, but there was a news camera man right in their faces. It hit us at that point that there might be cameras in Chicago too, and none of us wanted that. There wasn't really anything we could do if news crews were planning on being there, but it was a worry that just kind of sat in the back of my mind anyway. We hoped that our families and friends hadn't told anyone when and where we were getting in.
Security and ticketing in Miami was actually the hardest and most stressful part of the trip home. Nothing seemed to go right and we were already running really tight on making it to our gate before departure. Eyleen had to go back to the ticket counter once we had gotten all the way through the line for security because they had printed our the wrong boarding pass, John had to like completely re-pack his backpack that he had carried onto 4 planes already because it was too big, lines were just moving slow. I got through security first and got to our gate ASAP to be there just in case we needed to hold the plane. When I got to the gate, it occurred to me that I really had no power to actually hold a plane from taking off, but if it was necessary, I was going to get it done! Luckily our group ran up to the gate as the second call for boarding rang over the loud speaker.
Finally, we were on our last leg home. Tyler, Eyleen, and I got to sit next to each other in the middle row of our 767. The ride home was a combination trying to sleep, journaling, nabbing a newspaper from the man next to us, and talking with eachother, trying to reconstruct a timeline from the last couple days. So much stuff had been packed into the last two days, we each remembered most of the the story, but the bits and pieces seemed to be scattered. The three of us put together the pieces as best we could.
Then we were landing in O'Hare. I could hardly believe it. Eyleen's parents and mine were coming to pick us up, she texted them as we got into the terminal. We walked to baggage claim together, I was nervous. I couldn't wait to see my family, Mom and Alex and Dad were all there waiting. I was so excited to be wrapped up in bug huge hugs, but at the same time, I so didn't want to fall apart. I'm not sure why it was so important to me, probably just pride I guess, but I just wanted to be strong, to not fall to pieces. We stopped when we got to the escalator that lead to baggage claim.
"Are we ready?"
I don't think any of us really were, at least I wasn't, but we made our way down anyway. I don't know if there really is a name for the emotions that seemed to be flying around inside of my heart and my head, so I won't try to put my finger on it. As we got down the escalator, our families came into view, there they were (without any cameras!!). Before I knew it, I was embraced in the tightest, longest, best hugs I've ever had, fighting tears, holding it together, but just barely. I don't know what it would have been like to not have them there. The though really just occurred to me, but man, I'm so thankful they were there!
We made our way to pick up bags, introducing the team to families and families to the team. It really was a surreal night for me. Traveling all day in and of itself presented so many ups and downs, now I was back with my family in the most intense reunion I've personally known, and then life starts to go back to normal immediately-I'm asking Al about school and exams, I'm getting updates on the boys, its like I've just been gone for a week. Not that that was a bad thing, it's what I wanted, but it was just interesting I guess.
We spent a little while at baggage claim, Eyleen's mom and picked up some food for us (so good) and then we were on our way. Jon, Michael, and Tyler rode in the van with us and Eyleen took Alysen home. For maybe the first 15 minutes of the ride, we told a couple of stories and recapped the travels home a little, but for the most part we took the ride to mostly start catching up on sleep. We got to Madison quickly and dropped the guys off and then rode back home to Portage. I told a few more stories on the way home, but right now I honestly couldn't tell you one thing I said. We got home Saturday morning about 2 AM.
The next couple days at home were good. I wish I would have had more time to just sit, to take things in and journal and sit, but my time at home was short, so I spent it as much with my family as I could. I went to watch Jake and Nick curl Saturday afternoon, I was really nervous about going to the club. I felt like everyone that was going to be there probably knew where I had been the last week and I didn't really want to be overwhelmed, but everyone was really good. People we interested and asked questions, but most people treaded pretty lightly and gave me space, which was such a blessing. Church the next day was the same, and the next morning I headed off to Madison to start school Tuesday.
Over the next couple weeks, God did a lot of moving and working in my heart. This blog is getting long and I just want to get it posted, so those are stories for another day, hopefully soon. I want to say thank you so much to anyone who is reading this. You're faithful prayers and support these last 6 weeks have meant so much to me, probably more than I will ever know. I wouldn't be where I am tonight without them, so thanks
