Departure

Hey  God,

Today I pray that you guide the plane safely to our destination. I pray that you prepare our hearts for the journey ahead and give us patience for our travel. I give thanks for this beautiful day and that everyone arrived safely to the airport. Thank you for all your blessings.

- Amen

I am now sitting in the middle seat between Dana and Butch in a filled-to-the-brim flight as we prepare to depart from RDU airport and travel to Atlant, GA. Believe me when I say it is a blessing that we are all on the flight. Between a misspelled passport ("Hiare") and the regular insanity that is expected - take off your shoes, belts, take out everything in your pockets, put your hands over your head, then juggle cats and sing your ABCs - it's nice to be here in the knee-knocking quarters of the plane.

I hear the engines start to whirl and I am as excited as the toddler a few seats behind who asks "when are we going to take off?" in anticipation. I get even more butterfliesas we chat about what we will be doing when we getthere. Ithink I speak for all of us when I say that I cant wait to meet the children. So much is unexpected, but that excitement pretty much remains a constant. I've made a list of games I hope to play with the kids, but I am ready for anything...

Now we are hearing the always unsettling "if we crash"speech and the plane slowly moves along. I suppose I'll leave this entry at lift off so Ican sstare out the window, because after all I am a four year old that gets excited about this stuff!

- Abigail Bogardus