IN THE SAND SPILLED SAND AROUND THE EDGES:

I just left the sand spilled around the edge of the sandbox.  I just left Dubai.  I am in route to Bagram Airbase (AKA the Sandbox).  This last week has been a lot of waiting and I am ready to begin this journey.  I miss my wife and kids so much already.  It finally hit me last night at the hotel in Dubai.  This is really happening. Boy Scout camp is about to start. 

I have about a two and a half hour flight to Bagram.  The flight is not very crowded so I can spread out, unlike the flight from Atlanta.  There were only three available seats on the entire plane. 

As I said, it hit me last night at the hotel.  I was in my room and could not sleep, so I went for a walk.  It was about 1am local time and nothing was open to get something to eat or drink and there were only a few people around.  I was thinking about what Kelley and Conor said to me before I left.  “Thank you for doing this for our family.  That kind of hit home.  I thought they would be just the opposite.  “Why are you doing this to our family?”  It gave me a little peace that maybe this was the right thing to do for our family, and that GOD had a hand in this.  Small things come out in very profound ways.  It reminds me how much Kelley and the kids mean to me.

I have to tell you about one thing that happened on the flight from Atlanta to Dubai.  We had been flying for several hours and it was dark on the plane when a very large man that was sitting a few rows behind me got up to go to the restroom.  He got to my row and stopped and started to weave and rock back and fourth and then he fell into my lap and then onto the floor.  He had passed out on my lap.  Did I say he was a very large man?  I didn’t know what to think.  I reached over and grabbed his knee, the first thing I could reach.  I shook him and he woke up.  He sat there for a minute and then got up and sat in another guy’s seat.  It scared that guy and he went and got a flight attendant to get him out of his seat.  All this while most people were asleep.  It helped break up the flight. 

I met a man on the flight from Panama City to Atlanta who was very interesting.  He was unemployed for eleven months.  He just recently started working.  It was interesting talking about our lives being similar and what he did while unemployed being similar to what I did.  He has been married 26 years just like me and is a Baptist just like me.  Funny how GOD puts people in your life when you need them.  It was good to talk to someone that has gone through what I have and survived.  I am giving him my blog address. I hope he follows me.

I know one thing, I already miss my wife’s cooking.  The food in transit stinks.  I hope it gets better.  I just had a croissant with bitter orange preserves on it.  Awful!

Well I guess I will go for now.  I already have a number of stories to share with you in the coming blog posts, so keep up. 

By now!