Seattle airport has my kind of people, regular baseball cap wearing, jeans and flannel shirt kind of people… Starbucks kind of people. Sitting at the B-16 terminal sipping on my Grande 2 sweet and low light non-fat light ice, iced coffee my nervousness for coming home fled. I recognized how much I had been listening to the lies of the Enemy, and how much I had let this World Race journey tire me out instead of filling me up.
One of the many things I love about my God is that it only takes one quick prayer for everything that is weighing you down to disappear.
An hour and a half later Chief and Miss. Alli were picking me up to meet some of my favorite crew members for a burger. It took less than 2.5 seconds for everything to feel normal again. There was about a whole hour were I forgot that I was home because of Malaria and not because I was UBBER blessed .
Hotel Sutherland was home for the month. If you’ve never had the opportunity to stay over at Hotel Sutherland I would HIGHLY recommend it. Showers are hot, the company superb and love abounds even more so than the good food and wine. I spent my first week home, lying in bed and watching season upon season of the West Wing. I was ordered to rest which wasn’t much of a problem since that darn Malaria bug and its evil medication cousin Quinine kicked my butt.
Somewhere during week two amidst Kate and Ian wedding pa-looza and the fourth season of West Wing Linda B spoke some truth to my soul. Getting straight to the heart of why in the world I was freaking out and why I needed to get over it pretty quick and what I needed to be on the lookout for. It wasn’t hours long, or even ‘hour’ long but it spoke to me and I am thankful for that.
The rest of my month was a blur of more West Wing and The Newsroom, getting reprimanded for not resting enough followed by lots of resting, a laid back birthday, Downton Abbey, one spectacular Malaria Awareness Day with the Giants, blood tests, a great car ride up to Almanor and forever long phone calls to Expedia trying to figure out my flight situation.
I’m now back with my squad and coincidently still in Kenya due to the Ebola breakout in Uganda. I’m even more rested than I was before I left on the Race, I feel confident in where my life is headed after the Race, and most importantly I have a renewed since of thankfulness and excitement for my last four months. Even though Malaria happens, I know it happens for a reason.
