There & Back Again: A Vacation Trip by the Stulls

Hello and bonus points to you if got the title reference. :)

I’m not so good at the beginning or endings of things. I’d really like to avoid awkward introductions and I’d much rather skip saying goodbye and those awful tears and simply head to the airport. But the middle part? I can do that just fine. So here’s me skipping an intro and going right into this long overdue--ahh, who am I kidding? Every update is overdue so I’m right on schedule. 

Anyways, how in THE world is it February already?? I guess the holiday season goes pretty fast but it seemed to fly by with extra speed this year. Ever since we were accepted to serve with Mercy Ships, we’ve known that we would go back to Ohio for Christmas so we’ve been looking forward to it for a while. It’s hard to believe that visit has come and gone! We had a fabulous time and saw God’s hand in so many little ways throughout our stay. 

Back in October, we sat down and looked at the calendar to decide how long we would like to take for our PTO (Mercy Ships lingo for vacation). We knew that my brother’s graduation was going to be on December 13 and that Jordan’s sister’s wedding was on January 10. We thought it would be nice to have a week on either side of those dates since Katie’s parents were going to also be in the States for Matthew’s graduation and to have a bit of down time after the wedding. Six and a half weeks seemed like a long time but we wrote to the human resources department on board and asked them how many vacation days we had available (we accrue a certain amount of days per month). When the reply came back, it was exactly the number that we thought would be ideal! So we booked our tickets and before we knew it, it was time to start the 10,000 mile journey home. 

We started with a bus that Mercy Ships has hired for the year to take crew from Toamasina (where the ship is docked) to Antananarivo (the capital and where the major airport is; also known as Tana for the obvious reason of 2 syllables versus 6). It’s a 250 mile trip over the windiest roads I’ve ever seen.  We got stuck in traffic and rain and were on the bus for 11 hours. The countryside was beautiful though and we really enjoyed getting to see it. 

Lots of beautiful rice fields & rain clouds.

We enjoyed a day of rest in Tana before getting on our plane at 1:50 am. All of our flights were as perfect as flights can get--we slept over the entire continent of Africa and woke up to the Alps peaking out from under clouds beneath us as we ate breakfast. In Paris we enjoyed the free wifi and used up the remainder of our Euro coins from Gran Canaria, much to the dismay of the cashier who served us our coffee. Then on to Atlanta where we were swooped down upon by that sweet Southern drawl if we looked confused for even 10 seconds. Seriously, I’ve never been in a more friendly airport. My grandparents and aunt with her then-boyfriend (but now fiance!!) even drove two hours to meet us at the airport so we could chat for a bit! We felt so blessed! 

With Daniel, Esther, Grandma, and Grandpa Albright in Atlanta. 

Then another 3 hour flight to Dallas where my parents and Hannah picked us up and drove us the last two hours to Longview, Texas.Whew!! 

We had a really great week in Longview; it was so fun to be able to watch Matthew graduate. Dad, Mom, and Hannah were there too as they had left Guinea for an undetermined amount of time due to concerns over Ebola possibly shutting down borders with other countries. We were so grateful for the time together as a family, even as we wished that Ebola had never shown up and they never would have had to leave. 

(Update on Ebola: the numbers are slowly fading; pray that this will be finally done soon! Also be praying for the aftereffects: with thousands dead, it is essentially as if a war just happened.) 

Mom’s parents came for the graduation too as well as our good friends the Blackwells. The house that Mom and Dad lived in last year on their home assignment was still empty so their church said they could use it again. How perfect was that?! That house was pretty packed but we had a great time!! 

Matthew will be moving to Segou, Mali, West Africa in May for about 15 months. He'll be working to keep up a fish farm there, covering for another missionary family that is going on home assignment for a year. I'm pretty excited that he gets to come back to the motherland--even if he does have to be on the other side of the continent!

So proud of Matthew!! (He's the one in the gown and cap. :))

Even though we complained about the cold we
thoroughly enjoyed the fall leaves.

Albright family 2014

Then Jordan went to Ohio and I went to Iowa for a week to be in Sarah’s wedding! Sarah and I have known each other all our lives but we were roommates in high school and have been best friends ever since. We both moved to Ohio around the same time and then both decided to move overseas for 2 years in mission at the same time--without telling each other! She met Erkai at Cedarville University and it was an absolute honor (and blast!) to be there before the wedding to help out and be a part of the wedding. 

We were in Ohio for the remainder of our time, except for a trip out to Indiana to help move Sara into her new home with Garrett! The time was just perfect. We weren’t super busy but we got to see lots of people and do a lot of things that we missed--the bulk of which was eating, it seemed like! 

We were really touched by how interested people are in what we’re doing. We were able to meet with most of our supporters, which was amazing and honestly kind of unexpected due to the busy holiday season! You all were so encouraging to us; you really have no idea. This ministry has our hearts and the fact is that we’ll talk about it to anyone who will listen, so thanks for listening. :) 

Showing pictures to Grandpa & Grandma Stull

And of course there were lots of changes at home for us to catch up on! It was great to tell others about what we’re up to but it was even better to just talk to friends face-to-face and catch up on LIFE. There’s just something about that that is different than a phone call. 

Jordan & Fenner checking out a cool toy. 

One life change that we’re a little partial to is Ari so of course I have to sneak a picture in. :) Jordan thought it’d be good to show her some hunting videos; it didn’t seem like something Jenni would have time to do. ;) 

We were pretty excited to wake up to 4" of snow one morning!

Jordan had a lot of fun helping out at the shop occasionally.

It was especially fun to be there for Garret & Sara’s big day! Sara did an amazing job planning a beautiful wedding in 4 short months and we enjoyed being able to help out some for it--although her and Sandy had the whole thing so detailed out that we really didn’t do much! 

But before we knew it, the six weeks was up and it was time to head back. As not fun as it was to say goodbye, we knew it was time to get back to the ship and back into routine life (you can only eat as much as you want for so long, you know!). The trip back seemed MUCH longer ... but eventually we made it and it was great to be welcomed back! I was so touched; my team held up a welcome sign for me as I walked into the office and I had three huge bouquets of flowers on my desk waiting for me! I felt quite loved. :) 

I will confess though that the first two days back were some of my worst on the ship and I’m not really sure why (aside from jet lag!). I was ready to be back but when I got really into work on Thursday I was overwhelmed with the feeling of “I don’t want to be here.” I was really discouraged and confused and mostly just annoyed--why would I be excited to come back if I didn’t want to be here?? There was no particular reason; I just had a horrible attitude and saw the negative in everything. 

Then last Friday I was in my boss’s office, which is right next to the gangway so there’s always a lot of hustle and bustle. Him and I were talking about a project of some sort that we were working on and then a man walked by with a tumor easily twice as big as his face. In fact, I couldn’t even see his face; I’m just taking it for granted that it was there. 

And you know what? That’s why I’m here. From the work that Jordan and I do to the surgeon that delicately removes that tumor is a long chain of absolutely necessary people and by God’s grace, we are part of it. And with that realization Satan’s discouragement (because now I see it for what it was) was blown--no, blasted--away and this last week has been my absolute best on the ship. I’ve had conversations that have left me awe-struck at God’s ability to put together a puzzle full of people from all over the world with only one thing in common: Jesus’ love for the lost. These people are incredible and I hate that one day either they’ll leave or I’ll leave and we’ll have to say goodbye, but for now, I am so, so grateful.