Jill and Adam's church was sending them to a pastor's conference in Orlando, Florida and I was asked if I would be willing to come and watch the children. Of course I would! So, last week Allen took me to the airport to fly up to Wisconsin.
As I waited for my plane, who should come off the very plane I would be flying, than some dear friends from church. They had been in Ohio at her brother-in-law's funeral.
He was a Samaritan's purse pilot and had been killed in an airplane accident. I gave them a big hug and they shared about Brian Stolzfus. They said I should go on-line and watch the funeral. It really is uplifting! Wow, wow! Please take time to watch! I'm adding the link if you want to be blessed by this man's life.
God counts all our days.
All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Psalm 139:16
It was my turn to board. I was in row 2. This was a smaller plane so there was no first class, but I almost felt like I was in first class, being up so close to the front!
I enjoyed visiting with my seatmate. He was a young man from Canada and had been taking training in Wichita to be a co-pilot. I asked him who his teacher had been and it was a friend of ours! He mentioned that he saw that people here had faith. That led to me sharing some of what it means, to have such joy and peace because we know Christ died and rose again and how God gives us a purpose and hope in life.
Close to Chicago, Lake Michigan was freezing over.
Deb Raney had posted on her Facebook page that a fellow author was putting this book free on Kindle. I thought I would download it and read it on the plane. Maybe not the best to read a book about a plane going down in a blizzard and landing in a frozen river! Not while flying in the air, anyway, but it was captivating. I also knew that if my plane went down, and I didn't make it, I would be with the Lord. "One last breath on earth, our first in heaven!"
In Chicago, I changed planes. The gate was only a couple gates over. I met a family who had an adopted girl from China. I showed them some pictures of our girl we adopted from Korea over 34 years ago.
As the plane was leaving the gate, I saw this plane.
Flying over Lake Winnebago.
I was on the wrong side of the plane to see Fond du Lac below.
Appleton - later Adam showed me where his parent's house was.
The family I'd met in Chicago was sitting in front of me and they received a text message that their children's school was being cancelled the next day due to the impending storm. I wondered if my grandchildren's school would also be closed.
At Appleton, we sat on the tarmac for some time. My seatmate, a young black man who told me he was from New York, had been watching an Alfred Hitchcock movie on his device. But as we waited, he began to share how disappointed he was in the decline of morality in our country. Me too! We had quite a conversation, feeling unity in sorrow over this nation.
Adam picked me up at the airport. We drove to Culver's and met up with the family. The girls came running up "Nana!!" An older couple said "Oh, they love their Nana!" So I told them I'd just arrived from Kansas.
"Oh? Where?"
"A town north of Wichita - Newton."
"Oh, we know Newton!"
"You do?? How do you know Newton?"
"I'm a truck driver and I stop there!"
Isn't it a small world?
After eating our delicious burgers and creamy custard, we drove home. Because of the blizzard that was in the forecast, Adam and Jill decided to drive to Milwaukee that night and spend the night in a hotel by the airport before taking off in the morning. It was just too iffy about traveling the roads in the morning. But we were hoping the plane would be able to take off.
Good-byes were said along with lots of hugs and kisses.
