And...we're NOT off!!

What a night...

I arrived at the airport way early and immediately noticed the lack of lines! When I checked in, the lady said my flight had over 100 empty seats! She gave me an entire middle section and said I could just stretch out on it and get a good night's rest. YES!

I went through security and got to my gate. My dad called so I was talking to him while waiting for 1.5 hours to pass. I decided to stand up and walk around so I gathered my stuff, which included a backpack of bricks, a coat, and my travel wallet containing all my documents and information. I had the jacket and wallet in my arms while I was walking up and down talking. I realized I left my headphones so I wandered around to find some cheap ones. I found a pair and walked up to the cash register when I realized my wallet was gone. Completely gone. I panicked and raced back to every place I had been with no success. I went to the security check point and they had an officer walk with me to every gate, restaurant, etc for over an hour. Nothing. Intercom messages galore. Nothing.

I went up to an Hispanic janitor who was washing the floors and asked him with a mix of sign language, some spanish vocab, and carefully pronounced english if he had seem my wallet. He said no but had the sweetest look on his face and promised he would talk to all the other janitors and tell them to start looking through all the trash. He was SO sweet! He acted like it meant a lot to him for me to stop and seriously solicit his help. I need to make more of an effort in the future to seek these people out. God really used that to convict me. Its so easy to unintentionally overlook the people who are cleaning the floor when you are racing here and there.

I watched the plane fly away with a mix of worried-sick and heart-broken emotions. I was so utterly shocked by what just happened. My feet ached like crazy after running up and town the terminal at least 10 times. God really blessed me by really kind people, though. The man who was about to ring up the headphones came out and helped us look for almost an hour and then later came back to check on me. (maybe he just wanted a break from work...though he was acting more like he wanted my number:) All the security officers were searching and coming up to me asking if I had any luck. Another lady waiting for a flight heard me tell the American Airlines people what happened and came up to ask me questions. She said she is a cop and was going to make a sweep of the bathrooms really fast. She didn't find anything, but it was really sweet of her to do that. Oh yea, and another lady saw me peaking at the trash in the bathroom and asked if I was the one she had heard about over the intercom who lost a wallet. I said yes and she started digging...yes digging...which was more than I was doing...through the trash. I couldn't believe it! Then, right as I was leaving the airport, I found another janitor and asked if he had seen anything. In his broken english, he said, "No, but the other guy told us about it and we are all looking for you...really hard." I could have cried.

I got my bag and met my brother in the baggage claim who lifted the 100 lb backpack off my exhausted shoulders. My dad was waiting for us in the car outside. When I got in, I burst into tears. Everything was gone. I didn't even have a driver's license or a debit card!

The rest of the night was a big exercise in taking all my worried thoughts captive for Christ. I had no idea what would happen. BEST case scenario, they would call me in the morning saying someone turned it in. WORST case scenario, and most likely, I would be out 1000.00, my dream vacation I had been planing for over 6 months, and I would spend the next two months tracking down a passport, drivers license, etc. But, I KNOW God is a God who overcomes insurmountable obstacles much bigger than this one. He obviously did not want me on that plane for whatever reason. I have seen God work in amazing ways in my life. I have seen him completely drop things in my lap and I have seen him take them away. I had to trust that if he wants to bless me with this trip he will...and it is just that: a blessing.

I went to bed and was woken up by my dad yelling, "Amber, Amber!" He ran up and basically tackled me while innocently sleeping in my bed. He was so excited that he was shaking. "They found your wallet!!!" Your mom is talking to them on the phone downstairs right now!" He was crying! I jumped up and ran downstairs while trying to unpeel my contacts from my eyeballs and make sure I wasn't dreaming. The lady on the phone said one of the employees turned the wallet in just a few minutes ago. Everything is there minus the cash. I don't think I have ever been so relieved and thrilled! She rebooked my ticket to leave on the same flight the next day. I had to just buy another ticket from London to Milan so that put me out a couple hundred dollars. But, if I had lost everything, it would have cost me a lot of time and money to get everything re-issued.

What a great way to start off a trip! I am officially going to be the most paranoid person about wallets from now on! And I am never talking on a cell phone in an airport again. I think the combination was just bad though I still can't figure out when it happened!

All this has served as a reminder that this trip is from the Lord and HE has plans for it...not me. I know He is going to do great things and I am really looking forward to seeing them!

But, man do I hope I can still get those great seats on the flight tomorrow!!