I'm in Miami ____

You get the title if you know pop music from the past year! :)

Well, I'm gonna keep it short and sweet because I AM EXHAUSTED, but have no clue how long it will be until I'm able to post again. 

After a long night of not sleeping, I got to the airport with my mom, dad, stepmom and stepdad.  There wasn't much time before my flight so there wasn't time for much more than a curbside goodbye.  I was trying to hold it together just fine going down the line of hugs until I got to my mom and saw the tears in her eyes.  It wasn't a cheesy Lifetime movie or anything, but more emotion than I try to convey (publicly anyway) .  Cried as I checked in my bags, which the evil American Airlines woman wasn't buying because she still charged me for my bag being a little over the weight limit (OK 15 lbs...but c'mon it's for TWO YEARS!).  Not to mention the guy on the flight probably thought I was a weird basket case because I kept crying off and on for the first few minutes of the flight (as in "goodbye my beloved California, I don't know when I'll see you next" type thoughts).  Anyway, he turned out to be cool and was himself in the Air Force and heading over to Afghanistan soon, so we had a cool mutual respect of what the other was doing...and he probably got to understand why I was crying initially.

So, made it to Dallas and coolest thing ever.  The gate where I landed from Sacramento was about three down from where I had to board to Miami.  Believe me, I've had layovers where you have to catch shuttles and go to crazy terminals and barely make it in time for the next flight.  Flight to Miami was good and now, here I am!

After I got my approximately 100+ lbs. of luggage gathered and went in search of the hotel shuttle, I only ended up at the taxi bay.  There, another girl, who had equal amounts of luggage and myself kept giving each other the "You could be Peace Corps" eye and sure enough we were.  Together we were able to track down the hotel shuttle and we arrived, luggage and all!  Met up with some other H16ers and got dinner at a Latin/Cuban restaurant.  Seems like I'm gonna be with some pretty good kids the next two years! :)  Can't complain about anything for now!

Now, I'm in my pretty nice hotel room, with free wi-fi and my roommate is from Oakland, so obviously cool if from Nor Cal! ;)  Tomorrow is orientation all day and we fly out early Wednesday.

Thank the Lord for his provisions and blessings!  Whenever I embark on these kinds of trips my prayer is always that from Philippians 4:7, I ask the Lord for peace that passes understanding.  It calms me and I know His angels are en route with  me!  It got me through today and I'm sure it will on Wednesday too!

Don't forget to "Follow" if you haven't already and you know how it goes...

Hasta la proxima vez...