He's Home!

What a rollercoaster of emotions this whole process was.  Tanner told me on Monday that he was being sent home early.  Then he told me he was joking.  Tuesday he called me to tell me the joke he told me on Monday was actually true.  Then on Friday he called sounding very discouraged that he wasn't going to be able to get out because they canceled the flights.  I was worried because he had mentally switched gears to coming home and I knew trying to transfer back to a mission mindset might be difficult for him.  Plus there was a possibility that if he wasn't able to get out now he might not even be able to come home at his scheduled May 19th time.

I know we are able to call on help from beyond the veil so I prayed that if possible my dad could be sent to help comfort Tanner.  I know my dad was so proud of Tanner for making it through his mission and was shocked that he was able to handle such a difficult assignment.  I'm not sure if Tanner felt my Dad's influence or not but shortly after I said my prayer I actually got a text from Tanner saying the following:

"We just have to leave things in God's hands.  I think we just need to accept at this point that I'm staying for some time and that's just God's will for some reason.  Remember, I got a strong impression that I needed to go when I did.  God knew this would happen, so maybe whatever is going on is part of why I needed to go when I did.  If by a miracle I do still get home then great!  We prepare for the worst and anything better is a sweet surprise."

I was so relieved to get this text and realize that he would be ok no matter what happened.  But then Sunday morning we got another call from Tanner saying that it looked like the church made arrangements with the American Consulate (or something like that) and they could send the missionaries home but Ghana was going to close it's borders at midnight Sunday night.  Tanner was scheduled to fly at 10:15 p.m!  He was flying to Amsterdam and then Detroit and then Phoenix.  His mission president asked him to not tell us until he got to Detroit in case it didn't work out again but he wanted Tyson to have enough time to drive home.  We didn't hear anything else after this so then I was worried all day if he actually made it or not.  Thankfully during my evening prayer I had the thought that if Tanner had not made it on the plane, he would still have the mission phone and would have called us to update us.  The fact that we had not heard from him must have meant that he was flying home and had no way to contact us.

I tracked the plane.  It got off about 20 minutes late so arrived in Amsterdam a bit late but he had a 4 hour or more layover there so I wasn't worried about him making the next connection.  Tyson said Amsterdam is a huge airport but I assumed he was traveling with other missionaries which was comforting.  It took off from Amsterdam ok but once it got to Detroit it all of a sudden said the flight was canceled.  YIKES!!!  He was supposed to get to Phoenix at 6:00 p.m.  I was relieved he was back in the U.S. but wasn't sure what time he would arrive and didn't want him to arrive to nobody.  Thankfully, he apparently found a Ghanaian in the airport that let him borrow his phone to give us the update.  He was going to be delayed 4 hours but he was all set to arrive at 10:00 p.m. He was with two other Arizona missionaries.

What a welcome sight when we finally saw this boy walking down the exit!  He looked tired but great!  Tyson and Tanner hadn't seen each other for four years and Tyson thought Tanner had changed quite a bit.  So very thankful to have almost all of my children back home again.