She's home

After fifty-six hours of travel Julie arrived home yesterday afternoon. She was scheduled to return on Sunday, but she missed her flight in Johannesburg, South Africa. 

We spent Saturday preparing for Julie's homecoming. I vacuumed our room and arranged bouquets of flowers on the bookshelf, sewing machine and windowsill. Brian, Betsy, LIbby and Naomi cleaned Julie's car. I baked poppy seed bread and prepared biscuits. We bought ingredients for ice cream that we planned to crank on Sunday afternoon. Then we received phone calls from Malawi and South Africa with the devastating news that Julie was stranded in Johannesburg.

But we saved the ice cream. After an eighteen hour hour flight Julie arrived in Washington D.C. at six o'clock in the morning. Two more short flights brought her home to Michigan. We greeted her at the airport and after completing paperwork regarding her missing luggage, brought her home where we swapped stories and cranked ice cream. Then as the bossy big sister, I ushered her upstairs for a shower and a nap.