A Safe Arrival

On Monday, we managed to safely arrive at my grandma's house. But what an arrival! And what a trip! I would've never guessed what an adventure the Lord had in store for us.

Going back to Sunday night, we boarded the plane headed toward Miami. The distance by plane from Jacksonville to Miami took one hour, from 7:45 to 8:45. The Miami airport was simply huge! Finally, after almost two hours of waiting, we boarded our flight to Lapaz, Bolivia at 10:40 p.m. The plane itself was very long, with a narrow, centered aisle seperating seats into rows of three. The plane attendants provided us with pillows and blankets for the night, and a very, very late dinner at midnight. My family managed to catch a few hours of sleep during the six hour flight. At five o'clock a.m., our plane landed in Lapaz. Our two aunts and two uncles greeted us warmly. But our trip didn't end there. The final stretch by plane was to the city of  Cochabamba where my grandma lives. This flight only lasted 30 minutes. We landed, and walked right into the airport and straight into my grandma's open arms. Now we could relax!  Or so we thought.

To begin with, we couldn't get a taxi to drive us to my grandma's house. Then Andrew, the youngest of my two brothers, became sick with nausea. Eventually, we managed to get a taxi to drive us halfway home. We had been informed beforehand of a road blockade, so we had to leave our luggage behind at the airport with my grandma's friend, Mrs. Tere, who was visiting and came to meet us as well. We knew we would have to get off and hail another taxi once we came to the blockade, and that our luggage was too heavy to load in and out of two taxis. After walking for a block or two, we got into another taxi and reached my grandma's home. Yay! Our troubles were over. The thing was, my grandma had given the house key to her friend Mrs. Tere and she was in the airport with our luggage. We were locked out!

Then a couple, who had just driven by, inquired about a piece of property they had come to look at. Hearing the plight we were in, they kindly offered to drive my mom to the airport to retrieve the house key from Mrs. Tere. My mom accepted the offer, and ordered my grandma, two brothers, and me to stay in a neighbor friend's house until she returned. We did just that, and after an hour of reading and watching TV, I saw her coming to fetch us. She had the house key plus the luggage! What a blessing!

God really protected us all throughout our long and tiresome journey. Considering all the things that could've gone wrong, He has blessed us greatly and richly! The biggest blessing was when He sent that couple to help us in our need. They didn't just happen to drive by. And He knew we had good friends to help us. And He provided comfort and sleep during that long night. He knows everything and provides abundantly!