Back from Asia

 I know that we flew back on Monday night over a week ago

and I've been silent.

Apparently my immune system decided that I overworked it with all the travels and let a cold virus tag along for the return trip to Zambia. 

Thankful for the daily rains [none yet today] but those and a cold tend to give me headaches, and my energy/motivation levels dropped very low on our return.

We did get unpacked, things put away, some laundry done, and Cory's been working on office work.

Fritz enjoyed friends, two baby kittens in his room, and playing soccer with the Bible College guys this week.

So I've spent time resting, thinking, and praying. 

And we returned to our school work this week.

My prayer list now includes more specific names, places, and items from our trip.

I'll be honest with you- I didn't 100% want to go on this trip.

My list of things that were on the 'con' side about such a trip included:

• 14 flights: one was canceled = 7 hour taxi drive. 
• 10 immigration points: a lot of paperwork, visas, standing in line, possible issues.
• Travel in 5 countries: taxis, roads, language barriers, getting to airports on time...2 flat tires, 1 breakdown, no being late for airports
• SPICY Food! Yes, it was spicy. I managed at every meal to eat something. Thankful for fruit. Understanding hosts who tried to help me out. 
• Possibility of getting sick. Only on one flight from something I ate-thankful for down time the next morning, nice bathrooms, and medications. 
• Loosing items. Lost a couple items that were found/ returned including my nice cloth bag that the laundry folks said "Flew away" in Cambodia but it returned the next morning. One item we did misplace early on but overall that was pretty good for us. 
  
  
  
• Having major stress moments that escalated to family conflict. Face it traveling unknowns don't always bring out the best, plus time changes, sleeping on planes, cultural stress, language barriers, nothing 'normal', sitting in on agricultural talks, expectations of self and others, different beds...all for 28 days. PRAISE the LORD we did very well. Thank you for the prayers!
• Missing school for a month-but we learned a lot so we'll just count it.
• Leaving Patrick to deal with the cat. She did fine and had 2 kittens the week before our return.

I jokingly called this our Triple A trip = Amazing Asian Adventure. And it fully lived up to the name.

We learned a lot. 

Several times I just smiled and told the Lord 'wow'.

 I can hardly believe the life and blessings that I'm experiencing. 

Even the tiger-we saw her from across a lake. Yes, you could tell it was a big cat and with the telephoto lens could see stripes. 

I thanked the Lord for the sighting while being a bit disappointed while we were driving back toward the national park gate. 

Then we took a fork in the road, saw some deer, then 2 wild dogs in the road!

We still haven't seen African wild dogs-and it was unusual that these were not with the pack.

Onward, we went to where there were a few jeeps parked and we watched a female tiger just relaxing in the shade. 

Then after a while with our jeep turned around she started to move.

We and many others got to watch her head for a small water pond, take a dip, shake off, walk down the road and through the jungle a few times! 

We got so close that the jeep had to move a couple times. 

Thankful for our 'real' camera as cell phones were collected and locked up before the ride. 

So many blessings. 

Our Creator is amazing. His world so complex and fascinating.

I'm so very thankful to have met wonderful people and heard a bit of their stories and dreams.

I'm grateful for all the memories we made together with Fritz.