Home in the Mitten - Finally...

Home in the Mitten

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Finally...

Well, I mean well. In fact, I have been sitting here typing for 20 minutes and then...poof! My post disappeared. I was attempting to put a photo of the Eiffel tower in and poof! gone.... I am sorry it has taken me so long to blog about this all....life HAS been busy.

So, I will try again...

I have other big news, but first my trip report.

Traveling to Paris and Africa by myself was certainly an adventure -- from knowing little French, to pulling 70 pounds of luggage up subway stairs, to finding my way down Paris streets to our hotel, to having that first French cafe au lait (ohmyword was that amazing).

I arrived in Paris a whole 14 hours ahead of Anna and by the time she arrived, I was going on about 36 hours of no sleep. I was giddy and punchy. When she stepped off that plane and we met, it was so wonderful. We bawled our heads off. We arrived back to our Latin quarter hotel around 1 am and stayed up chatting and laughing till....I have no idea how late we stayed up. haha

The next four days were spent walking a million miles (note to others: never ever wear new shoes on a trip. I had two pairs of identical shoes along, one new, one older, and nearly ruined my feet with the new ones), saw the Louvre, the Eiffel, the Arc d'triomphe, St. Chapelle, Versailles, Avenue des Champs-Élysées, Notre Dame, Orsay Museum, the prison where Marie Antoinette was held before she was beheaded, and much more! We ooohed and ahhhhed the whole time....it was spectacular (and cold!).

We took an inexpensive flight to North Africa and I saw her city (I have to be careful about specifics, sorry). It was an amazing cultural experience. A huge, noisy, warm, bustling city of 3 million beautiful people. Anna is a great nanny and I enjoyed spending my days with her in "her world." She has become a strong, courageous and independent young woman. I am so proud of her and her servant's heart. She took SUCH good care of me while I was sick (see earlier post), getting up with me all night during my agonizing and painful sickness. She told me it confirmed to her how much she wants to be a nurse. She will be excellent!!

There is so much more to say about the trip: the Lord's miraculous protection so many times (when I was nearly killed by a bus in Paris, to avoiding a HUGE protest about Gaza (lots of police and yelling), to keeping us at home when my sickness hit (we had just been talking about where to go next via taxi...I can't even imagine what it would have been like to get hit with food poisoning while out and about). God is faithful and good. I can't begin to cover it all. I also can't seem to post any pictures. Sigh....I will work on that. Any suggestions?

Till next time! Julie