I am long overdue for an update on here, and I apologize for that. Its been a pretty crazy month. I’m just gonna update you all by location, because there were a lot of those since returning home!
Los Angeles: We flew into LA on May 29th and I stayed there through June 9th. Both my sister and my nanna live in the LA area, as well as several family friends, so I remained quite busy while there. It was really great to visit my sister at her new home (I’ve never really visited her since she moved to California) as well as to spend some time with my Nanna.
I also had the opportunity to visit my godmother, Connie, up in Lancaster, California. I haven’t gotten to see her in several years, aside from lunch a couple of years ago, so it was great to spend some time with her. I was also given the opportunity to speak at the high school she works at, Desert Christian High School. Thanks to everyone there for welcoming me and letting me share part of my story! It was such a blessing to be apart of your community for a couple of days.
Utah: I flew from LA to Utah, where my grandma and grandpa live. I was able to spend ten relaxing days with them, just resting and enjoying some down time. My grandpa and I went swimming a couple of times, and my grandma took me shopping. It was great to see them and have down time after such a crazy year! Its always great visiting my grandparents as well. We had a blast!
Gainesville: After finishing the World Race, there is one final event to attend: Project Searchlight. Searchlight is an opportunity to start to process through what you’ve experienced, begin to plan what will come next and to reunite with your squad. We stayed at a big church in Gainesville, Georgia (where Adventures in Missions is based) and were able to worship together as three squads (all July 2012 squads) as well as hear from some great speakers. I also got to celebrate my 22nd birthday at Searchlight, which was super fun!
Anacortes: After my time in Gainesville, I flew back to LA. I spent two more days there before beginning my road trip home. My friend Brighton came down to join me for the trip, which was great! We spent an evening in El Dorado Hills, California with my squadmate Mikala. The next evening, we stayed with some family friends, Bruce and Karen Reed, in Oregon. Our third day of travel brought me back to Anacortes, exactly one year to the day from when I left. It was great to be reunited with my family and friends! I missed Anacortes a lot as well. I got to celebrate the Fourth of July here for the first time since 2010. The Fourth is one of my favorite holidays, and its always such a blast in Anacortes, so it was great to be here for it. I started work back at Papa Murphys this past Friday, so life is starting to get back to normal.
If you’re in the area and would like to meet up, please get in touch! I’ll also be giving a presentation on Sunday, July 21st at 6:30 at Anacortes Christian Church. I’d love to see y’all there!
