Where to Start

 I have been processing this trip and trying to think of how to properly convey it in the nutshell of this blog. I suppose I should just dive in beginning with day 1, I just fear that my words will not capture the moments. It's all still so fresh that part of me knows I will look back in 1 year and glean something new from it all, but for now, this is what I feel...

Getting to Israel was half of the battle. We left our home in Dallas around 5 a.m Monday, arriving to the airport with that jittery excitement. Packing had taken place the day after Christmas so I was nervous that I had forgotten something in the rush. I dressed in my big winter coat, knowing I would need it once we landed in NYC. We were all set with technological devices charged and ready to entertain us during out long flights. We had been keeping an eye on the weather in NY and in our minds we knew delays were possible- but not until we landed in Baltimore did we learn that all flights in NY had been cancelled did our hearts finally believe it! I think we both handled the situation well... Dillon got on the phone with his dad to talk about our options... we could hang around and see about getting on a plane on stand-by or we could book an Amtrack train ride. We went ahead and booked the train for the next morning and it turns out that was a very good choice, since just a few hours later the  train was booked full. 

So, Monday we spend the evening in Comfort Inn Baltimore, and dined at their dingy restraunt. We crawled into bed around 8 pm and set our alarms for 2 a.m. I was a little cranky but knew we had to make it to NYC on the train or we wouldnt be able to make our flight to Tel Aviv. Once we boarded the Amtrek we both felt relief. We arrived to NYC Tuesday morning and toured for a few hours before heading to JFK airport. When we got to JFK we saw people sleeping against walls and saw trash cans filled to the brim, and we both mentioned how thankful we were that we didnt get stuck in the airport overnight. We arrived really early and had about 6 hours before our flight left, and I was craving Chili's so we sat eating chips and salsa one last time as we waited in the terminal. We began boarding our flight at 10pm, and finally took off at 1:30 am... exhaustion set in and we both slept pretty well (aside from waking up to turbulence over the Atlantic in the middle of the night- freaky!). 

When we landed in Tel Aviv on Wednesday night, I felt like we had just made it through the eye of the needle... It felt like a true miracle to be in Israel after the past 72 hours of travel. After we made it to Tiberius around 9pm, we ate our first meal in the hotel, took showers, and finally slept a full nights sleep.

Enough about travel- that's the boring part of it all, but I want to remember all of the details!

Here are pictures from Day 1

 Visiting with Elias Chacour in Haifa. His story of living in Palestine as a Christian in the 1940's was so fascinating and eye-opening!

After arriving in Nazareth, about to explore Mary's well (A well that on the outskirts of the city, likely where Mary would have gone every day to get water)

Mary's Well

                                                    

     Walking through the streets of Nazareth on our way to lunch.

 

Church located over the traditional site of Mary and Joseph's home

I really enjoyed Nazareth- it was our first site where Jesus had been and I felt like the city was very Middle Eastern, and it was so exciting to finally be there on our first day.