We set a date and bought the tickets. There was no going back!

So, we set a date of October 15. I look back now and wonder if I should have set it out for later, but I only wish we had gotten one other thing done and so we are now having to deal with that from here. But otherwise, we may as well have left when we did.

We have decided that we will fly into Honolulu for three days to find a car and then take the Ferry over to Maui.


I am full of expectation for this trip. I have heard a lot from God about how exciting and wonderful it is going to be and that I am to be full of expectation "as soon as I get off the plane!" Even be full of expectation when we find our car.

Up to our leaving it seemed as though everything was just getting taken care of. It was very hectic and busy, but what needed to get done was getting done. I was full of grace. As soon as I got off the plane, it seemed to stop. My first hope was that we would get a Ford Focus as a rental and we got some ugly Dodge thing. Then I immediately blew up like an elephant. I was retaining water so badly that I could hardly bend my extremities. I felt like the fattest person on Oahu.

We got into the hotel and there wasn't the beds I had requested and so I had to sleep on the couch bed because Darin was snoring so badly. Interestingly enough, the bed fit me like a glove.

The next day we drove to the North Shore and bought a red Ford Focus for a song and FINALLY found my childhood home! It was only a shadow of it's former glory. I remembered it with such splendor and it was pretty run down. We knocked on the door, but no one was home.

That night Ariel and I went to get something to eat and happened upon a street show where a guy sray paints these amazing pictures. He does this very intertaining show with music and dancing and humor as he does the whole thing. He was super cute. It really lifted my spirits.

The next day we planned to play and relax after we got our registration stuff taken care of on the car. As we were looking for the DMV, the car started blowing black smoke and putting off horibble fumes. Darin diagnosed it as the air conditioner was going out. Ugh! Not good in Hawaii. Hmmm, not feeling blessed. I am actually feeling rather picked on.

We decide to plug through and get on the Ferry at 6:00 the next morning and just get to Maui. So we got the car registered and had a huge fight to boot. We had been spending so much quality time together and had not had any for about three weeks. There was a lot of distance between us and we were both somewhat in survival mode.

We got up at 4:30 am and piled all of our stuff in the car and drove to the ferry. Just as we were driving up they shut the gate. All the way there I had been praying for the favor of the Lord and to have the gate shut in our face with no place to go back to felt like rejection. I was trying really hard to keep a stiff upper lip, and only be positive, but I was denying what I was feeling inside. I was so overwhelmed that I couldn't really talk myself through getting my mind back on track and I didn't want to call anyone because I didn't want to acknowledge that this grand adventure we were on was not so grand after all.