A play by play confessional of re-establishing myself among ‘Ah ‘merca’ post-World Race.
What Re-entry Looks Like –
After a 13 hour connecting flight from China, the wheels touch the runway:
First thought – ‘I wonder when I’ll leave the country again.’
Entering customs at LAX airport:
Overwhelmed. The signage is all in English with red, white and blue lettering. It smells like…nothing. Clean air. I walk under a sign that reads, ‘Welcome to the United States of America’. Panic. Glee. Scared. Elated.
The only appropriate thing I can think to do as I make my way towards the customs line is to cry.
You know you’re leaving the World Race when all you want to do is mourn and rejoice at the same time with tears, but you’re so severely dehydrated, all you come out with is a meek series of whimpers while smiling from ear to ear.
2 hours after clearing customs:
Arrive in hotel room for the night with three other beloved Racers. Two have face-planted on provided pillow-top beds and are incapable of moving or forming audibly clear speech with their mouths. These beds are the softest, most luxurious things we’ve felt in eleven months.
Third said Racer is rolling and unrolling her body in the curtains. Because we have curtains – and she can. I have not made it past the first light switch on the wall, which works when you flip it from side to side – and has a mood light setting. I’m still stuck at this point marveling at the amount of light shooting across the room. These acts are all happening simultaneously.
Day 1:
3:00 a.m. In a lavishly decorred hotel lobby across from LAX with my old friend Murphy Goode and our new pal I just ran into again tonight, Jet Lag. Lag is someone I’ve known in my past from international missions, but did not expect to see him for a few days, or at all.
The week of Final Debrief, it seemed God’s office hours for me were between four and six a.m. He made sure to wake me up each morning, promptly at four, most nights having lasted until two a.m., soaking up the most of the time I had left with my precious P Squaders. This is when the overwhelming feelings of panic, confusion and sadness would hit. I was thankful it was during this time, not when I was around all of my beloveds, so I could seek God alone, in the solace of the night. Kind of like Jesus did.
My plan is to give you an inside look of ‘Re-entry’ and all its glamour and squalor.
God bless. And stay tuned…
