Friday, August 24, 2012

A SLIGHTLY NEW CHAPTER: LET THE NEXT SET OF ADVENTURES BEGIN!


How about a blog?

I am sitting in Korea at the airport for a two hour layover between Washington D.C. and Hong Kong. I’m in for another adventure!

I went to the doctor yesterday to get some medicine I needed and the doc’s office was supposed to electronically send my prescriptions to the pharmacy. I arrive at Rite Aid pharmacy ten minutes before closing to find out that my prescriptions were not sent there at all. My mom takes the liberty to call CVS to see if the doc’s office sent it there by mistake, God bless her! There was no record of anything being sent to any CVS for me at all. It’s closing time. Where is my medicine? I leave for China in twelve hours.

Morning comes. Momma kicks into high gear to track it down. She did that amazing thing mom’s do when their kids have an important event to attend, explaining why her child’s schedule is more critical than whatever they currently have on their plate and orchestrating a montage of individuals at just the necessary speed to accomplish the goal and send the child calmly onto the stage (In this case, it was turbo speed and my stage was a China-bound airplane). Thank you mom!

Problem solved. She got the medicine. Only instead of getting me to the airport by 11:30 am, 12 noon at the latest, she thought I said we needed to leave by 12 at the latest. It was  a rough conversation as I told her that if she wasn’t willing to speed, she needed to simply let me drive.  She moved impressively quick for momma. She said “If you get pulled over for speeding, it will take longer because you don’t have your license on you” to which I swiftly replied “No. It will be quick. I will tell them the truth that I left my license in China eight weeks ago and I just happen to be on my way back to retrieve it and will do so speedily if they will kindly leave me alone” to which we laughed as Ashton sat in the back seat eating a banana that once my mom smelled, commented “Ashton you must be eating a banana, one with black spots on it.” Interesting? Okay not so much. She got me to the airport in time. I arrived just after boarding began.

I didn’t feel the urge to sleep, probably because it was a mid day flight. It was almost 14 hours and I managed to watch six movies. Just as I dozed off for the first time, within forty minutes, we were landing.

On money matters, it was tight. Did I mention that for the first time in any of my traveling adventures, my carry on and personal item were actually weighed. I had to pay $200.00 with a bankcard that was already overdrawn (into my dwindling overdraft protection credit account) just to check an extra bag. I had three checked bags, one personal item and $-200.00. Thank you God for blessing me with a good job, so I can fix that soon!

I will take a taxi from Hong Kong Airport to some Chinese border and then another taxi to my apartment, which I don’t remember the entrance code for. Fortunately, Christina has watered my plants all summer… I hope and she can tell me what it is (If my phone isn’t dead).

That’s all for now.

Here’s to another year of Brittany’s Traveling Adventures!

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Just a quick update

I can't believe I haven't written since May! I'm truly sorry for those of you who keep up with my life. The least I can do is blog.

Well, I'll recap the last few months. The WON ministry is moving forward, but with some changes. My dear friends Kristin and Sonda will not be coming back to China this year. Kristin is the one who followed God's call and birthed the ministry, a true sister and accountability partner. Sonda has been like a mom and mentor for me in China. Life is going to be different when I go back. I will still have my best friend, Christina and her husband, Mike (Thank the Lord!), but the rest of my immediate "family" from abroad will be gone. Additionally, I will have a new teaching position. I'll be teaching 5th grade English as a Second Language instead of high school literature and writing as I have the past four years. Hopefully, I will have more time and energy after school for the WON ministry. Also, the alley is right beside my new building so I can join some ladies on daily lunch time prayer walks! I'm very excited about that; although I don't know who I will walk with since Kristin is not going to be there as previously thought. So there are some changes for me when I go back next week, but I believe God has another adventure planned for this next year. Kristin, her husband Ian, Sonda, and her husband Jeff are life friends I will never really feel apart from.

So I leave next week. I'm sure I will have something to share. God's going to do something big!

Love you all!

Blessings,

Brittany