{"id":553,"date":"2012-12-11T14:32:06","date_gmt":"2012-12-11T14:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kandynolesstevens.com\/?p=553"},"modified":"2012-12-11T14:32:06","modified_gmt":"2012-12-11T14:32:06","slug":"the-long-road-home-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/?p=553","title":{"rendered":"The long road home . . . Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"22LVtrain1\"<\/a>For the upcoming weeks, I am planning two series of writings about things near and dear to my heart.\u00a0 This week will be about the adventure I took going back to Florida to help with the services for my Nannie (my maternal grandmother).\u00a0 As a Christian, I did not go to say good-bye; I went to remember the amazing times and to say \u201cI\u2019ll see you soon\u201d.\u00a0 This travel blog will be about the things I learned about myself and the revelations that God had in store for me as well as remembrances of my Nannie.<\/p>\n

Many know that I love a good bargain, and some know that I have a general aversion to flying solo.\u00a0 So when the news of my Nannie\u2019s passing arrived I wasn\u2019t sure what to do.\u00a0 I will be honest and say that my Nannie (whom I love and adore) had hoarding issues.\u00a0 My quandary was to attend the services or to come at a later time to help with the clean-up (which I knew would be needed).\u00a0 After hearing the sadness in my mom\u2019s voice, I knew I needed to go for the services to support her.<\/p>\n

Thus I found myself traveling by Amtrak (which I have always enjoyed) leaving my home at 4 AM in order to board on time. Right away in the depot, I met a delightful new friend who became my travelling partner on the first leg of the trip.\u00a0 While awaiting the train\u2019s arrival, we settled in on the vintage railroad benches in the original depot in Red Wing, MN, introducing ourselves.\u00a0 It was an instantaneous liking that I am often blessed to find in my life.<\/p>\n

She was travelling for business and was a first-time rail passenger with my journey more somber as a seasoned Amtrak customer.\u00a0 We found seats near each other, and we watched each other\u2019s items as one or the other of us walked about the train.\u00a0 She settled in working on Christmas cards, and I settled in and slept (not having done so much for the week prior while fretting about my Nannie).\u00a0 Later during one of our visits, we discovered our mutual love of our dogs \u2013 both being the proud mommas of goldens and our mutual love of all natural foods.<\/p>\n

She was simply a gift as my long journey home had just begun.\u00a0 We made plans to perhaps go out for dinner in Chicago, but due to a late arrival and my choice to upgrade to first class sleeping accommodations, it just didn\u2019t work out.\u00a0 We exchanged information and her Christmas card (so sweet), and we said our good-byes. It was a few moments later that God\u2019s first revelation on this trip\u00a0hit me.<\/p>\n

A week before I left I had seen a sweet little story about childhood friends reconnecting over Facebook after many years. I spent a couple afternoons looking for my elementary best buddy, Teresa.\u00a0 We were inseparable but lost contact when my family moved away.\u00a0 My searches were fruitless, and that left me sad lamenting about the old saying that some people come into our lives for brief moment while others last a lifetime.\u00a0 I am certain my enhanced melancholy had\u00a0more to do with trying to keep my mind busy while my Nannie was lingering in the hospital.<\/p>\n

As I watched my friend ride the escalator up out of the belly of Union Station, God revealed to me that He did answer my searches . . . just not the way I was expecting.\u00a0 My new friend that He provided to usher me along the start of the journey was named – \u00a0Theresa!\u00a0 With a few tears came the recognition of a\u00a0reaped\u00a0blessing through a prayer answered in God\u2019s perfect way!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the upcoming weeks, I am planning two series of writings about things near and dear to my heart.\u00a0 This week will be about the adventure I took going back to Florida to help with the services for my Nannie (my maternal grandmother).\u00a0 As a Christian, I did not go to say good-bye; I went […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[34,96,98,376,493,640,642],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}