How Great Thou Art

**This post was written Tuesday, July 1st, while I was sitting in the Heathrow Airport.**

I am blessed! As I sit here, in London Heathrow airport, the words of the title of this post ring true in my head. God has blessed me in so many ways, I can't even imagine my life without the Lord! I am speechless (and if you know me, that's is an amazing thing), but it's true - I am speechless by God's goodness to me. I am so thankful to God for every part of my life. I give Him all the glory for everything. He has always watched out for me and continues to bless me, every minute of every day! No matter where He takes me; Canada, England, South Africa - everywhere He surrounds me with people to love. God shows me His love through people. I know without a doubt that every person I have ever met has been brought into my life, so God can show me His love!

This past weekend I was able to spend four days with my bestest and dearest friend. She knows me more then anyone...My Mum! I thank God everyday for her - she has had an impact on my life like no other. To say that she is just my Mum would not be enough! She is so much more; God has blessed me and I am so thankful to Him for her. We laugh together, cry together, finish each other's sentances and sometimes when no words are said - we know what we are thinking, just by looking at eachother! Sometimes I wonder how I am going to survive in South Africa without my Mum, but then God brings my life verse to mind; "I can do ALL things through Christ who gives me strength." I know I will survive; thank you Lord for MSN, email and phones, with those I know that even though Mum and I won't be close in body, we are always going to be close. She has my heart and I have hers!
Mumma....I love you so very much! You are such a blessing to me.
You know that you always hold a huge place in my heart!
Hope I didn't make you cry...although I'm sure I did, I know I cried while I wrote it at the airport. (sigh!)

I'm going to try and give you a quick run down on this weekend, hope it doesn't get too long!

Mum and I met at the airport on Friday afternoon. (Thanks to God for answering our prayers) My flight arrived 45 minutes after Mum's and so we were thankful we were able to find eachother so fast. We hopped on a train and headed to Bournemouth. Once we arrived we were told by a taxi driver that our hotel was a 2 minute walk away. So, rather then going for the ride, we decided to walk! We started to walk, it started to rain and we soon discovered that it was not a 2 minute walk!! We got a little more wet then we wanted to be, but it all worked out; it just reminded me that life is an adventure - you have to enjoy it other wise it will be boring!

Saturday we spent the day traveling around Bournemouth. We tried to find Aunty Ruth's house as we thought we could do it from memory. We were doing good until we found out the public buses didn't go down the street we wanted to go on; so after asking different people (and getting all different answers!) we hopped on and off 3 different buses!! Finally after a couple of hours we found it; although it was locked - we couldn't go inside; but we did take pictures of the outside. In the evening we ended up going out for supper, then went to the cinema and went and saw the movie "Prince Caspian" - it was the great way to end a great day!

Sunday we went to church at Lansdowne Baptist Church and then met up with Mum's brother, my Uncle. He had come over with his family from France. We met up with Uncle Derrick, Aunt Peggy and three of my cousins, Becky, Claire and Olivier. We had a fun day with them, we even managed to go to the beach for a little while and got to see the ocean. While we were together, Uncle Derrick asked me if I wanted to read the scripture verses at Aunty's service. I was honored that he asked me and of course I agreed!

Monday was an early day, as Mum and I had to take a taxi to the service. The chapel where the service was held was on the cementary grounds so it was all in one place. It was at the service that I was able to meet up with more of my cousins, I saw Raph, Lilly, Jonathan and Christopher. (the first three I haven't seen in 17 years!!) It was so awesome to reconnect, see their families and the one thing that we all agreed on is that 17 years is too long! Once again, I am thankful to the Lord for internet and I hope and pray that we can all stay in touch more now, and not let it be another 17 years!! The service for Aunty Ruth was wonderful - apparently she had hand picked every part of her service before she passed away. Mum gave a nice "life tribute" to Aunty and did a great job! After the service we all headed over to one of Aunty's favorite restaurants. (she had taken Mum and I there in 2002) We enjoyed spending time together as family and friends remembering our memories of Aunty!

Around 4pm Mum and I left Bournemouth and headed to the train station for Southampton. We were met at the station by Uncle Pat. I can't even begin to explain how excited I was to see him! We headed back to his house, while Aunty Mary waited for us. Even though we only spent one night with them - I am so glad we were able to visit with them. I had told Uncle Pat that he and I were going to stay awake all night and talk!! But, as we were both so tired, it didn't quite work out that way :-) The four of us went out to supper, we had a lovely evening!

This morning we had to be up bright and early as we had to catch a bus to Heathrow at 7:30am. It was hard for me to say goodbye to Aunty Mary and Uncle Pat, but I found out that Aunty Mary reads my blog...."Hi Aunty Mary, love you and miss you!!"

Well here I sit waiting for my flight to leave. I left Mum about an hour ago (her flight left before mine) and I have about an hour then my flight will start to board. I am excited to go home, as it feels like I have been away from Bob for a long time. Funny how time does that? I haven't even talked to him while I have been away, so maybe that is what makes me miss him more!

So I had a wonderful weeked and am so thankful to God for everything. As I said at the beginning of this post - I am so blessed! And now, I am going to end this post the same way it started.

How Great Thou Art!

**Note: I thought you all might be intrested to know, how I spent two hours after leaving London! I spent it in Iceland!! Our flight had a medical emergency after take off and the closest airport was Iceland and so the captain stopped there. We had to stop while the medical personnel came on board, took the gentleman and his wife off. Then they had to take off all our luggage, find their luggage, put the luggage back on the flight and then fill out all the paperwork. We ended up being in Iceland for two hours!! Lots of people on the plane were standing taking pictures, we wanted to show people that we had indeed been to Iceland! So, as you will see by the picture below. I was in Iceland!!! I thought no one would believe me, so I made sure I got a picture of myself!