Surprise!

I arrived in Denver on Tuesday night around 10 PM after 16 hours of travel. At DIA airport, a lady approached me and said "nice puletasi". I asked her if she was Samoan and she hugged me and grabbed my heaviest bags and walked me out to meet my parents. It was so nice to meet a Samoan way across the world and continue to feel the sense of community that the Samoans are so good at doing.

The day after I arrived, I stood outside basking in God's glory: The clean, dry, fresh air; the view of the majestic mountains; the birds singing (or could it be the ability to hear the birds singing over the dogs barking and bugs buggin). It made me realize how incredible Colorado really is. I guess it does take moving away for some to truly appreciate what they have in this place.

After a day of shopping with my mom, my brothers came over for dinner on Wednesday night. It was wonderful to spend time with them, and I didn't complain about the grilled ribeye steak either! My good friend Megan showed up afterwards and we hung out until we were both extremely tired.

On Thursday evening, Megan and I began to unfold our BIG surprise (actually she did most of the work). I hadn't told any of my friends from church that I would be coming home and that I would be joining them for their Memorial Day camping trip.

Surprise #1: My friend Joy was the first person that we revealed the surprise to. Megan asked her to meet her for dinner at Q'doba, which is the restaurant that us three would meet at before going to Bible study every Thursday evening. Megan sat outside to greet her, and I waited for her inside. Joy walked in the door, did a double take and then stood there in shock.






Surprise #2: We drove to church and Megan hid me in the bathroom stall until most of the people arrived. Joy was kind enough to hide in the bathroom stall with me and keep me company. When it was time to reveal what the big surprise for the camping trip was, Megan said "the surprise is..." And Joy jumped out saying, "I'm going camping!!" A couple of seconds later, I jumped out and said "So am I!" There was a moment of silence, and then I got bum-rushed with hugs.

Surprise #3: Nick, aka "Kick", was late to Bible study, so when he showed up, I ducked under a counter-top. He walked in the door and said "so what's the big surprise?" and I jumped up and said "Hi Kick!" He stood there frozen while both his mouth and Bible dropped to the floor.