Day Eight: February 9th, 2012

Dear Internet,

I had tried to pack most of my "stuff" the night before, but I still had more packing to do this morning. I left most of my clothes there for the kids.

We had breakfast 8AM, and Christina told us that we would be leaving at 10AM. Someone had mentioned doing a prayer walk, and we all thought it was a good idea. I had missed praying over the first two houses (the older boys' and girls' houses) as I had forgotten to give Christina the files to some of the photos I had taken and was putting them on her jump drive. I caught up with them while they were finishing at the older girls' house and were going to the Casa Bernabe building. We also prayed for the Team Center.

My Small Group
Carolyn, Lindee, Me,
Karen, Kristin, and Emily

Before we left we took our "group" photos: each small group and the whole group. We then all got on the bus and were off to the airport. :( We dropped Indiira and Cairo off on the way.

We got to the airport, and unloaded all of our luggage. Emily (the leader trainee) was also leaving that day, although not on the same flight, so she stayed with us. We got our tickets and checked in our luggage without an issue. Then we all said our goodbyes to Christina. :(

The Team

We all headed towards the security check point. I got thru customs without a problem, no surprise. The security people opened up my bag because of my printer. :) We then had the go ahead to go "up" to our gate. At the end of the walk way there were escalators going up to the terminal.

You would think by this point, I'd have stopped being surprised when my assumptions were proven wrong. :) We went up the escalator and I expected to see the typical American terminal. Instead, it was a large room with four gates and a hallway leading towards the other two. SIX gates. There was a little book store, a coffee shop, a Subway (as in the sandwich), a duty free store, and a little deli/cafe combo.

We kind of scattered thru-out the room. I sat down in a very cold metal chair and opened up my computer to see if I could get wifi access. Success! It was pretty slow, but it was Internet none the less. :)

What I found when I logged in.

My plan was to update my status and log out, but God had other plans. Mom happened to be logged in, and I talked to her via chat for a while. I guess I made her cry. :) I kind of lost track of time and had to scramble a little to get a snack and a drink for the flight. I didn't really realize that this was my lunch opportunity, and should have went with Subway over the Pringles. :)

The flight to Miami was very uneventful. I had an aisle seat next to Eric, which was the only seating change on the trip. I was very excited to see Carolyn and Steve sitting in the row behind me and to my left. We talked a lot on the flight. It was definitely not a boring flight, as Shawn was sitting behind me. Shawn and Eric had become pretty good friends on the trip, and are quite the comedians.

We safely landed in Miami. We then had to take the train to the "passport checkpoint." It was so nice to have the signs be in English and be able to understand the lady on the loudspeaker! It was quite the walk to the checkpoint, and I managed to be with the overachiever group once again who chose not to use the moving walk ways. By this point, I had discovered I could strap my backpack to my suitcase so it wasn't quite so hard to walk.

Landing in Miami

We went thru the checkpoint with our small groups, except for Lindee. Her seat was in the front of the plane, so she was ahead of us most of the time. The lady scanned my passport, and I was off to the next customs checkpoint! Woohoo! They checked our customs form that we had gotten in Nicaragua, and then we proceeded to baggage claim. I thought this was kind of weird since we had another flight.

We got our bags and went thru the "connecting flights" gate. We had to go thru yet another checkpoint, and then were instructed to "follow the yellow dots". No kidding.  On the floor there were different colored dots leading to different checkpoints. The yellow dots led to where you could recheck your bags.

They took my bag, and then I realized that I shouldn't have done that. I had tried to give them my backpack too, but they told me that they didn't need carry-on items. Confused, I had Kristin come over to where I was. I told her what had happened, and she very confidently told the TSA agent that we needed the bright green bag back, as it wasn't really a checked luggage. I got my bag back and we continued on.

The next step was going thru security again. I was not very happy to learn this. I think going thru security is very annoying and time consuming. There was some discussion as to which check point we were supposed to use. One TSA lady said to go thru #2, as there were more food options. The TSA guy at checkpoint #2 told us it would really make more sense to go thru #4 as it was closer to our gate. The teams decision was to go thru #4, but by this point Lindee was already almost thru security at #2.

We all walked to #4. We were in line when Steve pointed out that he didn't think my Gatoraid was under 3ozs. I then had to duck under the ropes to get to the garbage and back, but fortunately it was only our team in line.

FINALLY we were thru customs and several security checkpoints. We then split up to find food and meet at the gate. I found a Wendys on the way and I was very excited. :)

Flight to Minneapolis

The flight back to Minneapolis from Miami felt like it took forever. About an hour into it, I was very much ready to be back home. I had a window seat again, and I had a fun view of the lights below us.

We landed without a problem, and headed towards the baggage claim. Mom and the other people who were waiting were at the bottom of the escalator to meet us.

It was tough to say good-bye to my team mates. I knew I'd see them in two weeks at our meeting, but I had just spent a life changing week with them and we had grown close.

Even though I didn't have a checked bag, mom and I were one of the last ones to leave. We got back home around midnight.

In Christ,

Laura