Home!

We got back home today!

Our day began with breakfast at 8:30am. After breakfast, we quickly loaded up a truck full of donated clothing and other items this missionary team wanted to give to the villagers. This would be handled by the Sisters of the Diocese in the Dominican Republic. With this, Sister Ana from the Diocese was present for our last day in country. She is such a radiant person and it was a pleasure to get to meet her. I understand she will be taking on a new role next month, so future missionaries may have a different Sister with which to work.

Our bus arrived at 9am and we packed our luggage and ourselves and headed out to the Punta Cana airport. It was a glorious morning as we drove through the city of Higuey and on our way to the airport which was about a 45-50 minute drive.

Once we arrived at the Punta Cana airport, the bus was unloaded and we headed over to check in for our flight. Then we went through Customs which was very uneventful and had some lunch before boarding our chartered flight. While in line at the ticket counter, Chris told me he was my prayer partner. He was such a great partner, having sent one card in early December and then having dropped off another on December 27th along with a box of chocolates. I also let Sean Cogan know I was his prayer partner and that I wrote both my letters shortly after getting the assignment then timing when I would send each.

Also while waiting, Teresa (youth coordinator from OLMC) caught me and two others to tape us for a video she is making of this mission trip. She did give me a heads up last night she was going to catch me and others she missed during the week. So I had a chance to think about it, but I was still pretty tired! I'm sure it will turn out fabulous!

Before boarding, we headed to the food court for a Wendy's combo meal. This was quite a change of pace given the meals we ate all week!

It looked like a full flight with 28 rows of six seats. There were quite a number of tourists apparently from Apple Vacations because they did a survey with them while on board. I heard one gentleman talking about all the tours and excursions his family took, and though we too went to the beach, I couldn't help but contrast the very different ways we and his family spent the same week. Lucky for us all, we had gorgeous weather for 6 of 7 days which served us all very well.

We landed in Cleveland at about 4:30pm. Then we went through Customs which took much longer than it did in Punta Cana. A shuttle bus carried us over to the terminal where we picked up our luggage and met our families. Alan and Aaron were there to greet me and to pick me up, and it was really good to see them! We arrived home at 6:05pm.