Yesterday at 4:30 my ears were filled with a buzz as my alarm went off to wake up. Today’s finally the day! I am off to the airport to head to Georgia then off to Cambodia on Wednesday. As I stared out my window into the pitch black of the early morning all I could feel was the salty water running down my warm cheeks as if I was a waterfall. All the emotions hadn’t really hit me until the day before where I dropped my sister off at work knowing that was the last time I would be driving her. The cold was wrapping around my body as I stood on the sidewalk in front of my family about to say goodbye. I was a mess. My dad, being a dad, and taking pictures of me as I try to smile but just can’t because knowing I wouldn’t see them for almost a year was too much to handle. I stare at the blue Prius driving off to my home as I walk into the airport about to start my new adventure. That was probably one of the hardest things I have done, saying goodbye to my twin sister knowing I won’t see her for 9 months.
It took all the energy inside of me not to burst out in tears as I walk through the quiet airport. As the kind lady was checking in my bag and handing me my ticket I realize that I must have not checked into my flight yesterday morning, when I thought for sure I had. I had woken up at 6:40 the day before to what I thought was checking into my flight but I wasn’t too worried because I was traveling by myself. As I’m standing in line waiting for everyone to get on the plane my mind ponders upon how amazing it is that God had aligned everyone’s lives to be on this plane at the exact same moment as I, but didn’t think too much of it other than that small thought. My eyes scanned the seats and right when I was about to pick a seat between two women the guy in front of me takes it and I was left to sit on the last seat on the plane, a seat between two older men. I had just planned on sleeping on the plane the whole time since I was running on an hour of sleep because of very late packing, but that didn’t go as planned.
My first words to the guy on my right were, “can I sit there,” and he seemed nice but that’s all I planned on saying . He started to make small talk with me and I told him that I had just graduated from Elk Grove High. He tells me how he lives close to there and all his children went or now go to PG. The thought of “what are the odds” come rushing into my mind. We continued to talk and he asked me what church I go to. I reply with, “oh a small one called Living Water.” He paused and half in shock replied with,” I also go to Living water!!!!!” Like really, what are the odds! We both just sat there for a few seconds with the silence of everyone else surrounding us and we both can’t believe this is happening. He explains how he travels a lot for work and I was working the majority of the Sundays so we had never seen each other before. Our conversation goes off into talking about his son and getting plugged into the Youth Group at out church. It gets even better. I begin to mention Rockin’ Jump (a place I worked and was the assistant manager at) and he stopped me with a excited/this is all so crazy response of “No Way!” I got really confused on why he said that but then he begins to explain how his son had an interview there last week. And then it hit me that I had interview his son last week! We were both in total shock. It’s so crazy how God had placed him so close in my life and I hadn’t even realized it till this point. We both lived super close and I even went to middle school with his son but never met them. Like my first thought was going onto the plane, God really had planned everyone’s lives to meet up with mine. My dad had booked that plane ticket super late when it should have been bought about a month before, my dad changed the flight that I wanted to this one because of the free check-in bags, we both happed to pick Dallas as our connecting flight, my check-in didn’t work when I thought I made sure it did, ended up getting the last seat, and out of everyone the last seat ended up to be next to him, that is no coincidence! When I first walked onto the plane I would have never thought I would be talking to a guy that lived so close to me and even went to the same church! It’s crazy how He works. Everything had to plan out just right for all of this to happen and I’m so glad my God is a God that knows exactly what we need before we even think we need it. If it was all up to me I would have taken that flight, most likely would not have sat next to him, and I would not have talked to the person next to me because what I thought was best was sleep, but God is better than that. God is so good. “For the Father knows what you need before you ask him”-Matthew 6:8. I needed him there to talk to or else I would have been even more of a complete mess. Having someone to talk to brought my mind off of my sadness and onto God. We continued to talk for the rest of our 3 hour flight. It was awesome! God is awesome!
