I'm Back... The Art of Packing & Unpacking...

Yes, I crossed the International Date Line and skipped June 30th!

I can't believe it's already July 1st!

June 29th was a packing day... and it's an art form by now... 

I group like items together. I weigh the box or luggage to get each piece as close to 23kilos as possible. When I check in and the ground staff sees my first piece at exactly 23kilos and then my second piece is the same, he is happy and so am I. He knows I've worked on packing the bag to fit all the requirements. And the process of checking in is easy and smooth. For this trip, my four pieces were: 23, 23, 22.2, 23.2. When I pack correctly, the unpacking is easy. Food items, clothes, household goods, gifts... easy to put away.

Ok... Isaiah and I went shopping and I should have gone to the Dollar Tree or 99Cents Store sooner. They have such great stuff. Isaiah also bought his Prime drink mixes. We were home, to clean and do the last load. I had ran earlier and finished 13k. I was so happy... the weather was cool and I knew I'd be back to hot & humid Taipei!

Angel came over at around 3pm and we went for Ramen... YEAH... and a chance to catch up. We hadn't seen each other for four years!

At 5:45, I was back at Nadine Circle. Isaiah had loaded the car and I just had to fold the items from the dryer and put everything away. I didn't have time to do one more tidying up around the house. At 6pm, Angel took off and Annie, KR, Kurtis, Isaiah and I went to dinner at Maui Chicken! What fun!

After dinner, Isaiah and I were dropped off and that's when I had time to do one more tidying up! And by 8:30, Annie was driving us to the airport! I forgot to mention that we did wipe down Annie's van! It really needed it!

Check-in went well... Customs was quite crowded, but we were at the gate by 10:30! Our flight started boarding at 11:50. We took off a bit late, but we arrived early. 

I slept for most of the flight. I was just so tired!

And the miracle was: the whole flight was completely booked... the only empty seat was next to me. How blessed I felt... to be able to stretch out just a bit... 

We arrived and went through customs and got our bags. Nothing to declare... Alan was at the airport to pick us up!

We were home in Neihu before 7am.

One more miracle was that we met the team from San Diego, China Evangelical Church, that was coming to Taichung for their missions trip. The organizers are our old friends, Alex and Chrissy Tan!

Alan took off for his weekend tennis tournament in Ilan! I think he was very happy to go and not have to worry about another diaper.

Before Isaiah and I worked on unpacking, I first went into my prayer room to spend time with Jesus! While I was praying, Isaiah took everything out of the boxes and the luggage and our carry-ons. All like items were grouped together on our kitchen counter and the dining room table and on our bed!

As I started putting things away, it was difficult to keep going... Isaiah had to rest on the sofa. I had to make space in our limited kitchen shelves for all the goodies I brought back! I also had to make room for Isaiah's suit and work clothes that we bought! I kept going until the counter and the dining room table were cleared! I got Mom up and showered and while she ate, I cleaned her room! I put on the mattress cover. I was in a sweat by the time I finished. It zips around the entire mattress. I mopped the floor on my hands and knees. It needed a good cleaning! I reorganized the "diaper" table, filling up all the empty containers. And I changed her sheet and went through her dresser drawers! 

How was the house? Well... maybe I'm super picky... so NO COMMENT!

By 2pm, I was finished with everything and went out to run errands, actually to pay the bills! I don't know if I will run today... The miracle is: I ran three times this week and I already hit 40km. God is so good! Isaiah was home with Mom.

My brain was so foggy that it took four trips to get all the errands finished. I kept forgetting to bring something... It was weird... I guess I shouldn't try to run errands upon the first day of returning from a long flight!

How's Mom? She has slowed down a lot... and not very interactive! She is walking on her own and she is feeding herself. So, we will see!

Daily Lovely Insight:

Seek Him First!