Favorite Quote of the Day: “Dreams are tawdry when compared to the leading of God, and not worth the aura of wonder we usually surround them with. God only doeth wonders. He does nothing else. His hand can work nothing less.”

I’m not quite sure when my Friday began, but I think it was sometime between eating Burger King at the airport with my family and saying “goodbye/see you in three quick weeks” to Mom, Dad and Isaac, and silently thanking the Lord as our BA flight finally lifted off Thai ground. The third farewell to my favorite temporary home wasn’t near hard as the other two had been for one main reason – I now have my sister with me. It’s a lot easier to wait patiently for a chance to return when you enjoying time with a close friend.  And at the moment we are having a mint time in London.

We arrived after approximately 11 hours on the plane. I slept for nine of those. In case you are unaware, British Airlines have wonderful little headrests that slide around. I think every airline ought to consider investing in them. Another thing you should know – I didn’t use my screen at all. Except for when Shai reached over and put on a One Direction song for the both of us to enjoy.

But on to more important details..

The flight ended, and we walked briskly to immigration, were we spent a lot of time worrying about whether or not we actually could enter this beautiful country visa-less. At the end of our slightly stressful experience, it was decided that we could on the condition that we enjoy ourselves and not work. I shed a few tears and Shaina sang praises to the Lord.

We arrived at baggage claim half an hour later (after landing, that is) to collect our bags – two of the last three on the carrousel (the last one belonged to our genius of a new friend, Luke who is hopefully enjoying his first day in London at a camp) and set off to find Kate Hardy, her cute car, and then Anna. Us four girls had fun trip down (or up?) to Puckeridge in the County Ware, and got to spend a delightful couple hours with the Robinson family. I believe my favorite part of that was walking down an adorable street in crisp weather, with a Gregg’s sausage roll in hand and four wonderful friends laughing beside me. God is good to allow us such carefree moments in life. : )

After that, the two sets of sister piled in the cute car again. Next stop -> Nanny’s house. It took us about 2 and ½ hours, but the drive was so gorgeous I don’t think Shai or I minded at all, especially when we found ourselves on a thin road with tall hedges on both sides and managed to narrowly squeeze by an older car with a man and his piglet inside. Fun times.

There was hardly a moment to enjoy Nanny’s home because by then it was nearly 6 and the 7:30 showing of Singing in the Rain was about 1 and ½ hours away. So after a quick freshen up, we were back in the car, and then on the tram, the train, and the underground tube. We found all modes of transportation to be efficient and pleasant, which is good because we will probably be enjoying them for the remainder of our time here. We will probably even get our own Oyster cards – proof that we are well-traveled around the London area.

Singin’ in the Rain was an amazing experience. It was a blessing from the Lord that we had tickets to balcony seats since we were a tad bit late and they wouldn’t have seated us till intermission (or “interval”) had we gotten tickets for lower seats, so yay God!

We sat high up in plush seats, singing along and quoting lines from our favorite scenes. I could go into a more in-depth commentary of our opinions of each character, the way they said certain lines, and how they set up each scene, but I’m pretty sure my Dad might be the only person who would actually appreciate listening to all of that.

Upon exiting the theatre, Shaina and I felt like we were part of a movie. Everyone around of was humming, and the scenery was simply beautiful. We rushed past tall, brick walls as the sun went to sleep around us, and when we emerged from the underground, the weather was cold and the sky dark – lit by a yellow, waning moon.

 Just so you know, the moon looks different in England - more similar to the American moon, but still different. And not at all like the Thai moon, although we did establish that it must grow and shrink at the same time and amount in both hemispheres. You’ll thank me later for this random information.

Not long after our moon discussion, Shaina and I were crawling into two comfy beds at Nanny’s house, with our three “suitcases” and carry-ons scattered about the lovely room. I read Psalm 70 before going to bed, and felt like I could identify with David, after all my fears from standing at immigration earlier that day… but before I hit a more serious note, Shaina wants me to inform our readers of our three funniest/ most awkward moments of the day:

1.       The first takes place at the airport. The airport elevator (“lift”) to be exact. And the moment when Shaina and Kate stepped out of the elevator and Maurissa Grace Harkins stayed in the elevator as the doors closed and the elevator went up, to be more exact. It was slightly awkward when two British gentlemen entered the elevator with one very confused and embarrassed me.

2.        The second began with Shaina explaining to Leah that the reason she had a striped shirt on was because Louie Tomlinson wears them, and therefore she figured it was London fashion, to which Leah replied that London fashion does not revolve around what Louie Tomlinson wears. And then the next two people we saw were wearing striped shirts. Coincidence?

3.        The third took place is Starbucks. Shaina has always had this dream of telling the starbucks barristers that her name was Cecelia, and then hearing them call out her fake name when her tall hot chocolate with whipped cream on the top was complete.  For this sole purpose, she bolstered up her courage and ordered a tall hot chocolate with whipped cream on top from the Indian guy with a british accent. Unfortunately, he didn’t ask her what her name was.

Oh, and although not in our top three, the Shriek Musical conversation on the trolley was another funny/awkward moment when the friendly girl beside scooted over and proudly announced that she had three parts in that musical, and we had just been saying  we wondered who had turned Shriek into a musical, and what kind of strange songs they could have added to that story. That was an interesting hole to dig ourselves out of. But I’d say we did a fair job, and our young friend was glowing when we congratulated her on being quite the actress and for her new role in the Matilda Musical.

But back to more heartfelt things.

I felt like God taught me a lot about trusting Him today. In my head I can think “duhhh, God knows what He is doing, of course I’ll trust the Maker of the Universe with my future!”, and I can even say those words rather convincingly with my mouth. But it gets harder to do both (and to believe so in my heart) when it looks like my dreams may not come true (ie:  when I learned I may not be able to enter the country with all the amazing places Shai and I been trying to figure out when to visit, and all the people I had been planning to meet and get to know).

 I have a lot of silly little dreams of my life that I tend to cling tightly to whenever it looks like God may have other plans for me. I guess because I think my dreams for myself are so great, God’s can’t be better. Sounds blasphemous when you write it out, huh? But I honestly do feel that way sometimes, and that’s the reason I have put Jim Elliot’s quote at the top of my first blog entry, on a post –it on my laptop, and even on a real post-it on my dorm wall. I guess I need a constant reminder of how small I am, how great He is, how much He loves me, and, therefore, how much better His plans are for my wisp-of-a-life.  I know He will carry me through the hardest moments He has planned for me to go through, and hold my hand to remind me of His incredible love for this fragile disciple. He has planned each of my days and has walked before me.

Therefore, I shall keep loving this life ….

                                And following footsteps.