Hana's POV

The time with Kevin's family just flew by and before I knew it, it was the day to leave. I didn't want  to leave and it felt like I was leaving behind my friends, my second family all over again. There wasn't a dry eye among us when the Woo's dropped me off at the airport. Sitting on the plane now, I was still teary eyed. Before I forgot too many of my memories I decided to write in my journal & a letter to Kevin.

Dear Journal, 

This has been the best weeks of my life in so many ways -I made new friends, I got to see a lot of cool things, and I got to spend time with Kevin's family. 

Dea's pretty involved with church here, which I think is both admirable and inspiring. She helps her mom with a bible study for the teen girls that go to her church. I got to attend one of their gatherings and it was a lot of fun. They were working on a series about apologetics aka defending your faith. Then they had snacks and games. 

Sight seeing around San Francisco was amazing too! Dea showed me all the big sights like the Golden Gate Bridge and a lot of the smaller places that most tourists don't know about. We walked across the whole bridge and it was really long and windy, but it was so much fun. We looked around Saulsalito -they have all sorts of art galleries and neat shops. Oh, it was all so beautiful.

Dea took me around some of the suburbs too like Berkley. It was really cool there and the college is so beautiful. We walked around some really neat parks there too that were wonderful. We ate at a neat little cafe that reminded me a little bit of a k-drama -it was really quaintly decorated, the food was really fancy, and all the barristas were wearing a uniform of sorts. 

The rest of the trip I mostly spent time hanging around Dea's friends and Mrs. Woo. Dea's friends were all really cool & I had a lot of fun with them. Mrs. Woo taught me a lot about cooking, which was really nice -me and mom seem to always end up butting heads and I get frustrated. She was so patient with all my mistakes and helped me learn from them. 

I had some really good talks with both Dea and Mrs. Woo about all my boy troubles and things. They gave me a lot of advice, especially Mrs .Woo. One thing she said that really stuck out with me was "If you date an unbeliever, you're dating someone who doesn't share the same values. You'll both end up unhappy at some point."

That was so true, and I knew Matt probably wasn't the best idea, but he seemd like such a nice guy at first. I guess I didn't realize how different our standards were until he started pushing things and acting abusive. It's amazing how easily swayed you can be at times by someone else even though you, yourself wouldn't dream of doing what you did on your own -I guess that can be good or bad depending on what it is. 

We got to skype with Kevin one evening for a while. It was so cool hearing him interacting with hims family and just seeing his face as he talked to all of us. I wished we could have talked longer, but he had to leave for his schedule. He's so busy all the time, and I really hope he is taking care of himself!

This whole trip has been really good for getting my mind off of everything. I honestly haven't really thought much about Matt at all until now. I hope I won't run into him too much at school this semester! Seeing him will be the worst thing of all, and I guess I'll try to always go somewhere with someone so it won't ever be just me and him if we do run into each other.

I'm not ready to go back to life, and I fell in love with California! Maybe it was just spending time with the Woo's and their friends that did it? Whatever it was, I can say I'm really going to miss being out there, but I know I need to go to school if I want to be a teacher someday! I think I'm going to sleep or write a letter now.

~Hana

I tried to sleep on the plane, but I just couldn't seem to get comfortable. I decided to write a letter to Kevin instead. 

Dear Kevin, 

Thank you again for being there for me even though you're thousands of miles away. :'(

I really enjoyed spending time with your family & I never realized how much I missed them. I can't tell if I fell in love with California because of your family or because of everything, but I know I'm going to miss everything there. Dea introduced me to a lot of her friends & I had a lot of fun with them as well. 

Your mom taught me a lot about cooking when Dea had to work. I was suprised that I could actually cook things without turning them into hockey pucks or blubbering messes. My mom never really had luck teaching me to cook, but your mom was so patient wiith me. I'm kind of excited to show mom what I learned when I get home from this semester. 

Speaking of this semester -I really don't want to go back and run into Matt. I'm relieved that I'm not as upset over this breakup as I thought, but your parents and Dea distracting me has been really wonderful. They've given me a lot of advice too, which was wonderful.

I guess I'm just really anxious that I won't feel the way I do when I end up seeing Matt again. Will my heart waver again even though I know how he is? I'm scared. I don't want to make a mistake or give in to something I know isn't good for me. Why can't all love be simple?

Love seems easy until things start going wrong. I guess that's when you learn how much people truly care for you, and It's also how you seem to learn the faults that you each have. With Matt I guess I learned that he wasn't the person I thought, and that he likes people to believe in his mask of a nice guy, when he's really not. I learned that I need to have more of a backbone and not get so easily swayed by the sweet, good looking fellows that come my way. 

I really enjoyed skyping with you and your family. It was fun seeing you interact with them and just hearing your voice. I wish you weren't so busy, but I know you have to work hard to do well at your job. It would be so nice if we could talk without time zones being such a barrier. 

I really don't know how I managed to lose contact with you for so long, but I'm thankful we were able to get in touch again. Hope you're doing well and not working too hard. 

Love, 

~Hana

Dea's POV earlier that day:

I didn't want to say goodbye to Hana & even Appa decided to take off of work to see her off. I hugged her and started crying. Omma & Appa both cried too. Hana was crying before all of us though and she held us so tightly. It was hard letting my "sister" go. 

After we waved our last goodbye and she headed into the airport, we all turned to go our seperate way sniffling. I turned to my parents "I really hope Hana marries Kevin someday. I don't want anyone else for a sister-in-law." 

"I hope she does too Dea. She's such a perfect match for him. Actually, no, she's always been the perfect match for him." said Omma

"She is a wonderful young lady Dea and I'd be happy to call her my second daughter." said Appa.

"I'm so glad you both agree, but don't you think they don't quite realize how much they really like each other yet?"

Omma chuckled "Yes, I think you're right. They were pretty infatuated with each other when we all were Skyping together."

"And I thought I was the only one that noticed that." Appa laughed. "I think we all could have been paint on the wall as far as either was concerned."

"Oh, Appa! Kevin did talk to us some." said Dea.

"Yes, but that didn't last long until the two of them started chatting again." he said. 

"Yeah, I guess we'll have to pray that God turns their hearts toward each other." said Dea. "I really want her as my sister, but when that will happen......?"

"In God's timing and if it's His will for them -we can trust He'll make it happen when it's supposed to." said Appa.

"I know Appa, but I wish God's timing would hurry up!"

"You do realize that she and Kevin would probably live in Korea and not California if they get married Dea?" said Omma.

"I know, but at least she'd be really part of the family and not just an adopted family member!" I sighed.

*Hi all! I got back from my trip about 2 weeks ago tomorrow. I hope all of you have been well in my abscence. Florida was awesome! I met a lot of cool people & we had a lot of interesting conversations with people during our outreaches on the beaches. Most of the conversations I was involved with were people who already went to church, which was cool, but some didn't really seem to have a real relationship with God which is what truly matters.

One girl in particular I'm going to request your prayers for -we'll call her M- she didn't grow up in a christian home, but was attending a christian school. She used to play sports and one of her coaches had been encouraging her to seek God, but she had to give sports up and without her coach there to encourage her she wasn't sure what she wanted to believe. M went on her trip to the beach to kind of forget everything for a short while, but God had other plans obviously! I really hope she comes to a saving knowledge of Him & chooses to live a life for Him too. 

They shared with us a lot of cool things to help us get talking to people about spiritual things -mostly get them talking to us about what they believed, so we could understand what they knew, didn't know, or didn't understand about a personal relationship with Christ. After they talked with us and got listened to, most people were willing to hear our views as well. 

One fun survery tool was the "Christian hater survey" as we dubbed it, but I can't remember the actual name of it. It basically asked "what the worst thing Christians have ever done?, What's the worst thing Christians have ever done to you?, What was the main teaching of Jesus?. Were these people following the teachings of Jesus?" Then after they went through those questions you asked them people if they wanted to hear more about the teaching of Jesus. If they didn't that was fine, but at least it got them thinking about things in a more positive way.

Another tool that I really liked and they actually have an IPhone app for is called Perspective Cards -basically people pick cards from 5 categories: God's Nature, The meaning & purpose of life, Who Jesus is, & the source for spiritual truth. Then you ask them to tell you more about why they picked that card and how they came to that view. At the end of listening to them, then you ask them if you could get their opinion on your beliefs & what was easy or hard about believing that. I thought it was such a neat tool and the app and information on it is on this website: http://www.perspectivecards.com/ They have a lot of videos explaining how to use them and what they're like too, which is very helpful. 

Anyways, enough rambling about some of the cool stuff I learned, but more about the trip. The boys did an awesome "Create-a-date" for us girls -the MC even anounced our invite at the meeting that morning ^_^ They had the hotel golf cart shuttle pick us up for dinner. Then they guided us to a hallway where we were each handed a rose before being escorted along the pathway to the deck where dinner was set up. It was overlooking the ocean and then sunset, which later turned to stars was beautiful!

The served us appetizers and sparkling grape juice. Then we each were served spaghetti -they made me special pasta too, since I'm gluten intolerant, and I found it so thoughtful! After eating the boys wrote us letters about qualities they had seen in us & read them to us out loud. I almost cried when they read mine it was so sweet!! They made us a special dessert and then took us miniature golfing, which was super generous. 

I don't want to bore you with anything more, but it was a really amazing trip and I'm so glad God worked out all the details so that I could go!

~AA