“This is our last few minutes in the US for five months.”

Three days ago I heard these words standing at our gate in the international terminal of the Atlanta airport. We were about to board our plane that was bound for Quito, Ecuador. I hadn’t really felt any sort of emotion all day, but the minute one of my squad mates spoke these words the emotions suddenly came flooding.

My parents. My siblings. My friends.

This is it. For five months.

I managed to make it all the way to takeoff and then I lost it. I put my earbuds in and pretended to take a nap while I cried into my pillow. I felt sick as the plane climbed higher and higher and we flew further and further away.

It was my hilarious little sister who always manages to make me belly laugh. It was the warm hug from my strong daddy who always finds a way to heal my broken hearts. It was the fun conversations with my mom who always has my very best interest in mind. It was my younger siblings telling me they didn’t want me to go and that they were going to miss me so much.

There were so many emotions and memories swirling around and in that moment, I wanted to beg the pilot to turn around. I did not want to spend five months away from my family in another country on another continent. I was worried that I was wasting my time.

Eventually I fell asleep and five hours later we landed in Quito. Going through immigration and going outside for the first time was enough excitement for me to pull it together, but later that night after we got settled on base and ready for bed I started sobbing again. I begged the Lord for a chance to see my family, but He remained silent.

The next morning, I walked around outside and explored the property that the base was on. As I looked out, I saw that the base was settled on the side of a mountain overlooking a huge part of the city. It was (and still is) breathtaking, and my sad heart suddenly heard the Lord.

I’m the God of this city.

That was not exactly the comfort from the Lord that I was originally looking for, but the more I thought about it, the more it began to dawn on me that the God at home is the same God here with me in Quito. The same God that holds my family at home is the same God that holds me here in Ecuador.

Don’t get me wrong, adjusting to living in another country is hard. I am very homesick. I am very anxious. I am grieving so many things. BUT I am also overflowing with joy. I am content. I am really, really thankful to be here.

There will be another blog coming soon about everything we have been doing here, but tonight I just wanted to share my heart, so thanks for reading :)

Also, I am SO SORRY for not blogging sooner. Right now I have zero access to the internet so it has been a little crazy trying to figure out how to blog. I am actually typing them offline and then using my squad leader’s laptop to post them. I am hoping for more consistency in the near future, but for now we just have to work with what we’ve got! Welcome to the world race.

Love from Quito!