Guatemala Day 2

        I was glad to go to bed at a decent after a long and eventful day but due to a long over due late night talk with Erin (my sister) that decent hour was no more. Realizing i had to be up in 2 and a half hours, I went to bed hoping to sleep a little, but my 3am wake-up call was not a good start to the day.  

Day 2 started with my feet hitting the floor at 3am. We needed to be at the airport at 4:30am but needed to pick up Cindy and Sarah Easley first. We had no problem getting our bags checked but yet once again.. I got in trouble at security… not for Sarah's water bottle but because I didn't take my laptop out of my backpack. wow. smooth move Jordan. We board our plane at 5:30am after getting Starbucks, again. The flight was only about 2.5 hours to Miami, so once we landed it was about (with time change) 8:45am. We walk to our other gate and wait to find a seat, at this time it's 9:30am and we are so hungry because we had been up since 3, so the only thing we could find to eat that was open was a chinese restaurant. Eating Chinese food at 10am is the weirdest thing ever but it was good. I don't know if that was because it was actually good food or if I was just so hungry that dirt would have tasted good. 

After chilling for a little bit catching up on the social media my mom, sarah and I decide to walk around; As we are heading back to our gate I see a group of teens heading our way, and who do I see with them? my good friend Mackenzie Kern. WHAT?!?! Mackenzie use to live in Brentwood and we use to go to school together but after her family moved to North Carolina about 12 years ago, i only get to see her maybe once a year now. We both were so shocked to see each other in the Miami airport, out of all places. We sat down and caught up on life for about 20minutes before she needed to get to her gate. She is on her way to the Dominican Republic for a missions trip as well. Crazy how God will put surprises like that in your day. If we had made it to Guatemala yesterday, i never would have gotten to see her and hear about her life. 

We finally board our plane heading to Guatemala at 11:30am, once we take off at 12:30pm Sarah and I watch "She's The Man", it took every muscle in our bodies to try not to laugh out load and be annoying to people around us but if you have ever seen She's The Man you would understand how hard it was to keep quiet. Once the movie was over I figured i'd try and take a nap because i was running off of 2hours of sleep from the night before and 6 from the night before that. Right when I get comfortable and put my iPod in to drown out the world around me of babies crying, children playing with iPads and having the sound effects all the way up, parents chatting very loud; the flight attendant tells everyone to turn off all electronic and sit up properly. well…. there goes my nap. awesome. We finally landed in Guatemala City at 2:30pm. PRAISE THE LORD! we had no trouble getting our bags or getting through customs, once we walk out of the airport I see the sweet welcoming faces of our amazing translators. we load the bus and finally meet the rest of our team. wow.. their are more people then i thought there were going to be. At last we are on the road heading to Xela. For the first 2 hours of the bus ride i was able to sleep for about 20 minutes before i got a rude awakening from Sarah saying we were stopping for dinner. 

When I stepped off the bus i was refreshed by a beautiful Guatemalan sunset over the mountains and a nice temp of 74 degrees. which was so greatly welcomed after being in 100+ degree weather in TN. We had an incredible meal of steak, chicken, sausage, pork, rice, guacamole, black bean soup and fresh salsa. After dinner we got back on the bus for another 2hours before we reached our hotel. This is the first night i have ever seen a crystal clear sky with the stars shinning so bright in Guatemala. Sarah and I also got to watch fireworks be shot off in the city while we were on our descent  from the mountain we were driving down. I will never forget this night. Thankful for a shower and a bed to sleep in for more than 2 hours. 

    This country is more Beautiful than I remember and I cannot wait to see what we have planned for tomorrow. 

Never expected to see Mackenzie in the airport or to have my breath taken away again by how beautiful this place is. All I can say is Expect The Unexpected.

Here are some photo's from today-

waiting to take off

window view

This is the position i got my 5 minute nap in. 

Guatemala from the air. Breath Taking

two of our amazing translators.

Guatemala Day 1

      Today is July 14th, The day I was suppose to leave for a missions trip to Guatemala. I got about 6 hours of sleep last night so when we arrived at the airport this morning I wasn't feeling to perky. After getting in trouble at security for my friends water bottle she had put in my bag I thought the day couldn't get any better. I finally got my Starbucks and life was looking up from there. We finally boarded the plane, I got a seat next to my best friend, Sarah Easley and we were as giddy as could be. I'm pretty sure everyone sitting around us wanted to punch us in the face and tell us to shut up because by that time my venti iced coffee and her grande frappuccino were starting to take effect. About 20 minutes after take off we experience some turbulence but didn't think much of it. Suddenly the flight attendants frantically start moving about the cabin, opening and shutting compartments, moving swiftly up and down the aisle but trying not to create a panic. The turbulence kept getting worse and worse and  Sarah was becoming more and more afraid. She grasped my hand and put her head on my shoulder while trying to catch her breath. She kept saying, "oh my gosh were gonna die, were gonna die!!" I notice that something isn't right and so do the passengers around me. A few minutes later a flight attendant comes on the intercom and explains how they are having technical difficulties and that the pilot will be on in a moment to explain what is going on. Sarah is still freaking out and passengers start mumbling under their breath while watching the flight attendants move around like bees in their hive. Finally the pilot came on the intercom and and explained how he had smelled something burning and wants to land back in nashville to have the plane checked out. As we get closer to the airport the turbulence gets even worse than before, the plane would drop a couple of feet every few minutes or so, and you could tell we were flying faster than normal speed. Our landing was rough but we finally made it to our gate. Everyone was ask to get their carry-on's and leave the plane; once we were off the plane we talked to some passengers around us about what was going on. One lady said her son was tracking our flight from his phone, as he looked at his phone he realized the plane was turning around. He looked to the sky to see if he could see the plane and he did, not only did he see our plane turning around be he saw smoke pouring from not one, but BOTH engines. After trying to see if we will be able to make our flight from Texas to Guatemala we realize we will miss our flight in Texas and would have to spend the night in the Dallas airport. The next flight to Guatemala City is tomorrow the 15th around 11:15am from Miami, our flight to Miami leaves at 5:30am tomorrow morning. 
     So here I am, at home. Waiting to go to the country I love, waiting to hold sweet little Julisa in my arms, waiting to see how God is going to use me. Its been a crazy day and  today did not go as planned, but I'm trusting the Lord has a plan. 

What else can I say then, Expect The Unexpected.

Eliana

Eliana Wheeler is a Sweet, adorable little 4 year old girl from Guatemala. Her Dad, Chris use to be my youth pastor and her mom, Lindsey, is one of the Prettiest women i know. To give you the short story Eliana has a hard time going to sleep, she doesn't get sleepy till around.... 2am. Chris and Lindsey have tried everything possible to get her to go to bed earlier but nothing seems to work, so every night the Wheeler family goes to bed around 2am. As you can expect Lindsey and Chris are very, very, very tiered but each day they get up to serve the Lord and continue to love Eliana. My Best friend Allison McLeod and I decided to give them the night off so they could go on a "mini vacation" to celebrate their 8th Wedding anniversary. Allison and I got to experience what they go through every night with Eliana, and realize how little sleep they get. :) 


The video Below is of the "all girls sleepover!!" we had. - I, (and i hope you will to) continue to Pray for the Wheeler family, and that God will continue to give them strength and that whatever is keeping Eliana awake at night will leave her so their family will actually sleep like normal people:) 


Wheeler family, I love you so much and i can't thank you enough for all that you've done in my life. i hope you enjoy the video as much as we enjoyed sleeping over with your little girl. 

Hot Air Balloon Awesomeness

This is the Video my sister and I made from our Awesome Adventure.

I hope you enjoy it

Hot Air Balloon Ride

My sister Erin, a friend of hers, Whitney and I went on a Hot air balloon ride on Sunday. It was a sunrise ride over Franklin and was one of the most fun things I've done in a while. Here are some pictures and hopefully a video to follow.

Me, Erin, Whitney 

2500 Feet up

Setting up

                                                              My sister Erin and I

Expect The Unexpected

How did this name come to be? It's basically my life, "Expect The Unexpected." Every time I plan something MY way, on MY time table, in MY life, God shows me something HE has in store for me. It always turns out to be completely different from MY way. This has kinda become a joke with one of my friends and I because even with small things in life, like dinner reservations or what time were suppose to meet somewhere, things go different then she or I planned. The restaurant doesn't have our name on the list, or 6:30 dinner turns out to be dinner by yourself  because, the others phone died and  had to work late  so we had no way of calling each other to make sure the other wasn't died. Yeah I'm only 17 but one thing I did learn Early on... Expect The Unexpected in life. I mean Hey Life didn't come with an instruction manual!