Departure from JFK

Thank you all for your prayers! Traveling went much more smoothly than I had envisioned.

I was so blessed that every member of my family was awake to say good-bye when I left at 8:00 a.m. Holding tiny fingers and kissing tousled heads and then my sister praying with me for safety and blessing before I left. How could I not have teared up? 

The drive to NYC gave me plenty of time to catch up on lost rest during the past few days due to last minute preparation and sickness, though when I was awake, the scenery was beautiful! Spring must come a lot faster to the City than the Adirondack Park. Whereas the trees were beginning to bud in my hometown this chilly 44 degree Fahrenheit morning, every view from the car window on the way to JFK was lush and vibrant. Especially beautiful were the occasional lilac or white-blossom trees, and the many bridges that we crossed. 

After a pleasant and leisurely lunch at an airport cafe, my parents helped me begin checking my bag. That began as a bit of a hassle because the airline workers thought that I was with a group of teens called Birthright. After I was finally pulled out of that waiting line, the process went much more quickly and smoothly. Contrary to expectations of having my luggage dumped all over the floor, I simply had to answer the questions of a very pleasant security lady who let me hug my family good-bye before she walked me through security. There’s something about that last hug good-bye that’s always hard, though I am so ready for this trip and very excited.

I had to walk a LONG way before making it to gate B31, but I enjoy that. I like independently following the signs and blazing past people on the escalator floors. Very soon after I sat down in my terminal at 4:00 p.m., I met several other members of my tour group. There’s no question that we are all going to spend a pleasant few weeks together. 

After chatting with these new friends in the terminal for a while, an airline worker walked up and asked me to give her my carry on bags. While I was waiting for them to be returned another lady told me that one of the shoes in my carry-on had set off an alarm. The shoe was then packaged in a separate envelope and I will have to claim it along with my suitcase in the baggage claim at Tel Aviv. A shoe, really? One shoe? Okay. Having my carry-on bags taken turned out to be a blessing in disguise also. I was directed to a back room to retrieve them and then escorted onto the plane ahead of everyone else. 

God has definitely directed my travels thus far! Our flight took off an hour behind schedule, at 8:00 p.m., but this means that we will be landing a little later in the Israeli afternoon and that is all right with me because it will put us that much closer to being able to go to sleep tomorrow night :)

As the sun set bright orange over the wing-tip of our Israeli plane, we quickly left NYC behind, heading into clearer skies. Not a bad ending to our first day of travels. 

5-15-16. 9:34 EST