Tuesday, June 8, in EL PASO

I love to be above the clouds ... to see the circle of the earth, the rivers and crops below ... I will never ever get tired of it! However, the PROCESS of flying is sometimes unpleasant and in our day and age has gotten kind of complicated. There are so many rules now! And odd regulations!

I was a little bit concerned about my luggage on this trip. I had NO intention of checking any bags whatsoever because I've heard so many stories of people's luggage being LOST and never recovered, etc. I had a carry-on piece of luggage, as well as my backpack, lapbag, and camera case (very small). When I was packing for the trip, I loaded my carry-on mostly with toys, games, art supplies, and only just a few items of clothing ... and it took me more than TWO HOURS of packing and repacking to make everything fit just perfectly. During that process, I realized that my carry-on had one of those nifty expanding zippers and I immediately UNzipped it so that I could squeeze a few more items in my suitcase that the kiddos and I could play with! I was SO pleased that I managed to get so many fun things packed in such a compact space!
But as I was getting my E-ticket at Detroit Metro, one of the attendants there asked if I was checking any luggage. I very sweetly (!) told her, "No." She then looked at my stuff and was kind enough to tell me that if I did not zip DOWN my carry-on, I would be charged $50 over at the security area because my luggage would be considered oversized. I thanked the lady, found a corridor and a bench not too far away, and began to repack my stuff! I transferred as many flat items as I could fit into my backpack until I could zip my carry-on bag all the way down! Voila'! I was successful getting through Security without any extra charge and walked onto the airplane without any hassles whatsoever! The airlines only allow passengers TWO items to carry on the airplane: your rolling luggage has to go ABOVE, and your smaller item has to go BELOW the seat in front of you. I had a hard time cramming that backpack in the seat in front of me ... but it finally fit!
Look at these crop circles ... they were everywhere! I've looked them up on the internet, but I still can't figure out just exactly what they are. I've got to do some reading up on them!
I had to switch planes in Dallas/Ft. Worth. The airport there is HUGE. I had a lot of time in-between flights, though, and my next flight was actually at the very next gate to where I deplaned! When I went to board the next flight, the attendant told me in no uncertain terms that I could NOT take all of that stuff on the plane with me. She suggested that I put my lap-purse inside of my backpack and keep my camera case out ... but she was taking my carry-on luggage away from me! I told her I came this way from Detroit with no problem ... she responded that "this is DALLAS, not Detroit" ... I'd forgotten that Texas is a country of its very own ...

At least there was no charge for them taking my suitcase away from me, and it was actually there when I arrived in El Paso at 7:00 Tuesday night. As we were landing, they announced that the temperature was 102 degrees. The only time I've encountered temperatures like that was over in Israel by the Dead Sea ...

Jesse and three bouncy, happy little children greeted me at the airport. We picked up my offending suitcase (!) and drove on home to their house.
Emma had a little present for me on the nightstand of our room (Emma and I were sharing a room together) ... I didn't get a very good photo of it, but it is a piece of bubblegum (from her storehouse of treasures) with my name attached to it. She was very proud to have a gift for me.
I had a few small presents for the children as well. A few weeks ago I needed some wrapping paper and went to Party USA (I think that's the name) and while I was there, I discovered they have all kinds of cool stuff. I was particularly wanting to bring the children each a small flashlightlight. What I found at Party USA was a small SOLAR flashlight with a little clip that attaches to most anything. So no need for batteries! They are very sturdy little instruments and the kids had so much fun with them. I bought four of them because I knew they would want ME to have one as well. Christopher picked out the RED one (because RED is his favorite color), Emma took the PURPLE one (because purple was as close to PINK as I could find), Matthew chose the blue one (even though he would have rather had green ... but there was NO green flashlight at Party USA) and I ended up with the black one.
I also bought some finger puppets (they were only 25 cents each!). I gave Christopher the dragonfly ...
Matthew got the ladybug ...
And Emma Joy got the butterfly! They were quite pleased with their small presents, and we played with them for quite awhile Tuesday night.

I have to tell you about some of the answers to prayer I received on this trip. I've already told you how my suitcase arrived safely, without extra $$ charge ... that was an answer to prayer!

But here is another one:

It was getting close to bedtime, and Diana walked into Emma's room where we were all playing. She had kind of an apologetic look on her face and said she needed to tell me something. She said that since it had been SO hot for the last few weeks in El Paso, that they were having a little bit of a problem in the house. That problem was ... SPIDERS! Diana knows about my inordinate fear of those critters, so she was very kind to inform me of this problem. I tried NOT to have my face show what was going on in my head (!) and Diana said that if we saw any spiders just to call her and she would take care of them.

About ten minutes after that, Diana came into the room chasing something on the ground (a spider) and killed it, telling us not to worry or ask about what she had just snuffed out! The dread was growing in my heart ... it's terrible to have phobias, isn't it? Later on, I used the bathroom and discovered one of those nasty things in the tub ... Diana came right away and killed it. But now ... I was very much ON EDGE ... what if there were more? So I prayed.

Isn't it kind of God to care about the weird fears we have? He says to tell Him about all of the things that we worry about. He says He will NEVER leave us, NEVER will He forsake us! So I told Him about the spider thing. I stayed at their house four more days and never saw one or heard of there being another one the whole time I was there! Whew. Thanks, Lord!
One of the Pahman pets is a little rascal of a dog named Sophie. Why is she a rascal? Well for one thing, she steals shoes and flip-flops and HIDES them. There is something about footwear that she is obsessed with. She stole one of MY flipflops and Diana had to crawl way under a bed to retrieve it for me! But Sophie is much loved in this household. There is a little magnet on the refrigerator (which I took a picture of and it didn't turn out) that says: "Choosing a dog may be the only chance you get to pick a relative." In Sophie's case, she is certainly part of this family. The children lavish their love on her and she returns it in kind.

All of us got ready for bed, we tucked the children in, and then I spent some time with Jesse trying to catch up on his life a little bit. When I went to bed at 11:00, I could NOT get to sleep for the longest time (something about those spiders kept going through my brain!) ... so I prayed for each of these beautiful kiddos and asked the Lord's blessing on the days ahead ... which I will tell you about very soon I hope!