The Departure.

I just reread the title of this blog and for a moment thought it said "The Depression." Ha :) It could almost be considered that, but not quite. We were definitely NOT happy to leave our home once again....but I don't think we quite reached the level of depression.
But who likes Goodbye?

Regardless, the end of our homecoming had arrived....but we weren't all that sure our plane would be able to fly us away. It was still snowing, after all...

We spent our final full day running around taking care of gift card purchases and exchanges, cleaning and packing. Even Molly could sense something was up and did her best to distract me from my cleaning! (Notice her in the cleaning supply cupboard??) By nightfall, we were growing weary....but I was happily surprised by my Mom, Dad, sister and Gunnar (Pam's boyfriend) with a Birthday party. My Mom makes some pretty amazing cakes, I just wish I could have carried the left overs onto the plane...because birthday cake sounds quite delicious at the moment... Ben enjoyed winning a round of Bananagrams....although I must give a shout out to Gunnar who played some pretty spectacular words!

The snowfall came to a close on the morning of our departure. I tried not to be too disappointed. Ben had to get back to work, after all. Wade, Kelley and Baby Greening (though he/she really had no choice in the matter) came for one last visit before we took off. We dined in Waid's Diner....mmmmm, American Breakfast food is so delightful! I even managed to squeeze in one last visit to Starbucks...

Before we knew it, our airport driver had arrived....complete with Mom and Dad-in-law and bro-in-law Chris. And all of a sudden (even with the 45 minute delay in take-off!), there we were...on the plane...looking below at our beloved home of Kansas. It was a mad dash to reach our South Africa bound plane on time, but we somehow managed.

We settled in for the long haul (only 15 hours non-stop) and I was very happy to have an aisle seat this time. Ben sat between me and a very chatty, interesting young lady wearing a flowy African style dress and orange grandma sweater. She was headed to South Africa for her first time ever- explaining that she is from New York but she "travels to LA all of the time." (hahaha!) A few hours into the flight she pointed out to me some break-outs on her skin, saying "this flight is doing some crazy things to my skin, see?" I saw. Finally our flight began the descent and we prepared to resume our footage on South African soil. So did our new friend. She strapped on her black fanny pack over her flowy African style dress and said "I got my fanny pack! I'm ready!" Oh goodness, was she ever... I didn't know how to explain to her that the fanny pack wasn't necessary, so I held my tongue and did the "smile-knod" instead.

So....that's that. We are back in Safrica. Missing home, missing friends, missing family. We are still not sure if we will be back in June 2010....December 2010....or June 2011. It is our hope and prayer we will soon know that answer. In the meantime, please keep us in your prayers and always remember...you are more than welcome for a visit.