<Click here for America Posts series>
This will be my last post in this series. Philip and I are on our way home to Auckland after spending four weeks in America.
We made new friends everywhere we went.
We met some old friends from childhood days.
We met family.Some very close family members and others not so close.
The meeting of the three Johnson brothers (my husband being one of them) and their wives, in America of all places, will become something of a historical landmark for our family. This close circle of six will get smaller in the years ahead as one by one we head home to be with the Lord and His perfected people.
Life is uncertain and we live in different countries. Soon we will get caught up in our own lives, and It is possible that we may not meet again this way. But we have a great hope that we are all heading home. This is the same hope that the Apostle Paul had, when he said: “Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.”
May we live lives that make our heavenward direction evident, continually being transformed to the likeness of the Saviour—full of purpose, love, and good works.
_________________________
Ending on a lighter note
Finally some notes on how the US is different from anything I’ve experienced before.
Queues are “lines” in the US, and boy, are they long! You stand in line—in long lines—everywhere.
Toilet flushes, on average, in the US are different from those in New Zealand—more efficient and seemed to involve a suction/vacuum effect.
Doors to individual toilet stalls in public rest rooms have gaps (about a centimeter wide on both hinge side and bolt side), and some privacy is compromised.
School buses look like those in storybooks.
Yogurt and chips come in larger packaging than I’m used to.
But then everything in the US is on a slightly larger scale—larger houses, wider roads, and greater portions in KFC (although the burger in McDonalds was the same size, if not smaller). Our last meal in the US was outside the Costco store in Norwalk LA, where a little money went faaaaaaaar.
Burgers can also be referred to as sandwiches. In fact any bread/bun that has a filling seems to be described as a sandwich.
Of course foods like Hot dogs and corn dogs are common here.
Paper bags. Unlike in New Zealand, stores use paper bags.
I conclude this post, as we wait to board our flight home from Sydney. Only seven minutes left for boarding time, and so I stop this series here.