“O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways” (Psalm 139:1-3).

And, so O Lord, you knew that yesterday I was going to rise early, send my youngest off to high school with her lunch, scurry to Walmart to pick up the last of a few things I still needed for the trip, long for my workout that I didn't have time for, scurry home to pack, repack and repack to fit a week's worth of clothes and toiletries into the carry-on sized luggage, have a quick chat with my older daughter, text my younger son, and then head off to the Pittsburgh Airport.  

And you knew that after my very nice husband dropped me off at the door, he would have to turn around after 15 minutes to bring me the cash I forgot to get from his wallet.  And, you knew that Hollis would get the third degree going through TSA.  And, you knew that we would be sitting at our gate and realize that the board was now saying Baltimore, than Atlanta, and not New York City.  And you knew that we would sit there, enjoying each other's company and sharing stories for 6 hours and we would not ever board an airplane.

Due to rainstorms in New York City all flights that were not already enroute to JFK were being dropped one by one as our flight moved later and later on the departure board.  I suppose the weather was just too risky for that many planes to be moving in that limited airspace.  In addition, we discovered, the Accra flight out of JFK that we couldn't get to on Friday...did not fly at all Saturday.  

But, we still went places through our stories and through the people we met along the way.  We went to Ohio to visit Hollis's mom.  We flew Air Thailand and had a great flight with Dan.  We went to South Carolina during our conversation with Steve who is about to move to New Castle (and who first clued us in to the fact that we were waiting on a plane that might not be there...).  Then it was off to Friday's for a nice dinner where we met Chelsea.  Then with George, the ever-so-patient Delta gate agent, we went to Atlanta, Amsterdam and Ghana, and back again looking for alternative to our predicament. 

By the end of the night, Hollis and I even did get to Africa through our Taxi driver who was a native Tanzanian.  When our driver heard about our predicament, after getting back in the cab at the gas station, he said "Welcome to "Ghana". We appreciated his humor!

And, this is life.  It is not always predictable, it is not always easy and it doesn't always go the way we planned.  But, if we realize we are the passengers and let God do the driving, we can make the journey knowing he will never steer us wrong.  He may take us the long way, and he may let us have very serious bumps along the way.  But, I promise you this, we can trust Him. It is always about honing us, deepening our relationship with Him, and/or about the greater good for the others around us...Even if we can't see it.  Remember the tapestry?  

Tomorrow we will try again.  We will leave PIT at 11:58am, God willing, and get to NYC soon after.  Since the Accra flight doesn't leave until 11pm, we will try for an adventure for a few hours in the Big Apple.  Stay tuned for that one...


God Bless!
Chris