I hate the saying "all good things must come to an end."

We left Brisbane this morning.

Not a happy day.

It was so sweet - we had 14 people come to the airport to see us off. We definitely had the biggest group at our gate, anyway! And yes, in Australia you can still go all the way to the gate with people - remember those days? It was a mix of the families we stayed with and some of the people our age also. How sweet!

I was just fine, dry-eyed when I was going around the goodbye-circle at the gate until I came to Doug, the daddy that we stayed with the longest. I started to tear up then...and when I got to Mandy, I lost it. She was crying a lot too. As was Josh, their 10 year old son - just about broke my heart!

Gosh, it was hard to leave. I've never had such a close family away from my true family before - but that's the wonderful thing about the body of Christ. We truly were bonded as sisters and brothers. And I learned so much from the families I stayed with, as well as the other people I got close to in the church. I was blessed so much by having some tell me that they had learned from me as well, and that I had blessed them while I was there. It was so encouraging, because I have doubted at times whether I had really made an impact or whether I was the only one coming away with anything. But who was I to doubt that the Lord really can work, even through someone like me??

So now I'm sitting at Kiah Ridge campsite outside of Sydney, and I'm about to go through the debriefing-sharing-processing period. I'm not really looking forward to that, but I know it's good and necessary so I will try and get the most out of it! That way I will be ready to talk about my experiences when I get back. I think I've already discussed how I have issues talking about trips right afterward - well, I think these two days should help with that. It has been fun catching up with the others who were in Australia this summer though - I'm remembering how much fun they are! It should be a good day tomorrow I suppose :)

Today in Sydney was so fun too! It was so lovely - the Opera House truly is stunning, and Darling Harbor is just gorgeous. I took heaps of photos - I'll upload when I get home and have time! I'm so glad I got to see Sydney for a little bit before I left. We had about 4 hours to walk around the city, so we got to enjoy it. It was a great day outside too, not too cool!

Love you all, I'll be home so soon!