The encouragement I have received from you all has been amazing. It has literally blown me away and it has made the last couple of days so much easier! I can't help but compare it to when we were grilling some hot dogs a couple days ago. I feel like I was the charcoal we used. I'm the one doing the job but I didn't have much of a fire going. As you know, charcoal by itself isn't gonna cook any hot dogs. You guys have been my lighter fluid. And with each text, tweet, phone call, and facebook post or message my fire has grown and grown. And let me tell you what, I came to Hawaii blazin!! So THANK YOU. I can't do this without you all and you will never know how much each of you mean to me.
As far as the trip goes, yesterday was rough. It was the longest day of my life, literally! I woke up at 6am, had 20 hours of bright sunlight going strong, and it was still only 8pm. This time change thing is crazy!! The first flight to Charlotte was real short, 39 minutes, and Dr. P and I actually got to sit by one another. Once we got to Charlotte we grabbed something to eat and as I was sitting there at our gate my brother, Robert, and one of my good friends from high school, Angela Lopez, walked around the corner. I think I screamed! They are both going to Israel with Fellowship of Christian Athletes but I had no idea we would all be in the Charlotte airport together (thanks mom for figuring that out!). God knows just what we need and that small incident made my heart just a little stronger. The flight to Phoenix was about 3 hours and when I started to see the terrain of Arizona though I thought we were on another planet! It was so brown and rocky and wow! It was so unique and different from what I'm used to, yet it was a quick reminder of why I love the east coast. We boarded our plane to Maui after being in Phoenix only about 45 minutes. This plane had lots of people on it and it was a looooooong 6 hours! I hadn't mentally prepared myself to be seated in a plane that long so I was itching to get out of there about half way through. But the whole trip was worth it when I started to see the waves of the Pacific Ocean and the coast of Hawaii. I spent the first couple of hours here just trying to think of how I could explain it to you guys. There is always a breeze and there are all kinds of trees everywhere. It's so much like the mainland and so different at the same time. We ate at Panda Express in an outdoor mall and stopped at Walmart to get butter. But this is a magical place!
Dr. P and I slept in a tile classroom last night, each of us on a mattress on the floor. We left the doors open with screens over them and it felt so good. Sleep was on and off but it felt good to sleep and I didn't mind waking up because it would hit me all over again that I'M IN HAWAII!!!! We're finally waking up and getting a start to our day (it's 10am here). We're going to do some cleaning and organizing around here to prepare for the rest of the team coming tomorrow.
I wish each of you could be here with me. I am so excited for these next four weeks!
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