i'm back!

isn't this fun! i thought a blog might be a bit more interesting than my normal emails. hope you enjoy!

Well I hurt my back a bit more on the plane ride. haha, just kidding! I know for all of you who have been worried about me that probably wasn’t very funny! I am back in Australia however, and that is not a lie! I flew out on Thursday the 10th and arrived back in Townsville about 24 hours later. Thursday was one day before the 2 week mark of my surgery but all the flying and traveling went well. I know many of you were praying for me and my back and my flights and let me tell you what happened.

I received my boarding pass like normal in Portland for my flight to San Francisco but I didn’t think I was given the one from frisco to Sydney. So when I made it to SF I was just gonna take my e-ticket up to the counter and get my boarding pass there. No big deal. But when I arrived, I had about an hour before the flight left and no one was at the counter. Finally someone got there after about 15 minutes and a ton of people got up to get in line because apparently a lot of people had their boarding pass but it didn’t say what seat they were on. So the employees made an announcement to sit down and they were working to try and figure everything out. All this chaos seemed to be happening behind the counter and people were being called up for all sorts of reasons and it seemed like a big mess. Finally I get up to the desk and the lady starts working on my ticket but she keeps getting distracted by other employees asking her things amidst the chaos swirling around us. So I start joking with her and tell her that if all this fuss was about me that I would gladly sacrifice my seat to be put in first class. I figured that would just be the noble thing to do. Well she didn’t put me in first class….but she did put in me in business class!

Woohoo! For 14 hours from SF to Sydney I was lounging in a chair that laid ALL the way back, putting my feet up on a foot rest, getting fed off a menu, viewing my personal tv screen, and sleeping like a baby! People were boarding and heading back to the economy section and as they passed I heard several times “must be nice…” I wanted to reach out and grab them by the hand, look them in the eye and say “no, no, you don’t understand, I’m just like you….but yes it is nice, thanks!” haha! As fun as it was (and by the way, even though it was probably the last time I’ll ever be there….I loved every second) it really was a blessing because of my back and it made traveling a whole lot easier for me. God was taking care of me that’s for sure. So yes I made it, my back is doing great, and it’s exciting to get the ball rolling again. Seven of my fellow prior DTS mates are back with me as well and two more are not on base but living here in Townsville. So nine of the 18 of us who went through the July DTS are back which is really cool. A lot of familiar faces and a real easy transition back into everything so far.

We start up tomorrow morning and so I will write more when I know more of what’s going on. Thanks for the thoughts and prayers during my trip and be sure to keep in touch!

Aaron

p.s. as a side note, when I got all the way here and was in my room at the base, I was unpacking my bag and found the original boarding pass to Sydney from SF in the stuff I was handed at Portland in the first place! I had my economy ticket the entire time! But you know what….I have no regrets….:) :)