Goodbye stinks

This is Sunday & I just now have the mental and emotional energy to sit down & write to you all.  Thursday was a very busy and long day... a day I dreaded for the last several weeks.  But we made it through what I think is the hardest part of our year away.... saying goodbye.  I REALLY hate saying goodbye.  However, even though goodbye really stinks, we had lots of blessings along the way. 

Blessing #1:  I was completely overwhelmed that we had such an amazing group of friends and family at the airport at 5 am to say goodbye.  While Mark & I checked our 11 bags and 4 carseats, several of them made sure everything had a tag on it with our names.... the rest of our help watched kiddos-- mainly feeding them cheerios, raisins and orange juice.  After we were all checked in, we spent a little bit of time with everyone before we headed to security. 

Blessing #2:  A cool thing that happened while all this was going on is that one of the workers at the airport was talking with our wonderful babysitter-- asking her all about what we were doing.  Our friend was able to share with her a bit about our faith in Christ and how we are relying on Him to get us through this next year of our lives.  She had many questions and I hope God will put someone else in her path who can continue to lead her as she continues to ask those questions.

Blessing #3:  Getting through security went pretty smoothly and our sweet strong kids trudged down to the gate with very heavy backpacks and rolling suitcases.  They were troopers, but going the short distance from security to the gate, we all quickly realized that getting through Atlanta with all our carry-ons was going to be a nightmare.  What to do???  We had a stroller intended to carry little Shirley Temple, but quickly realized it would be better used as a cart for the backpacks.  We arrived at the gate in Knoxville & boarded immediately.  The airline attendants took great pity on us and checked three of our carry-ons as checked bags all the way through to Guatemala City for FREE!!

Blessing #4:  The flights were very uneventful and as we landed & were trying to figure out how to get OFF the plane with all the backpacks (since our backpack cart, aka stroller, was waiting for us at the door of the plane), God provided someone on both flights who helped us carry some of the backpacks to the stroller!  One was even a friend of ours!!!  Little Monkey even did really well & slept much of the second flight. 

Blessing #5:  My new favorite song is Waiting Here for You, by Christy Nockels.  We landed, and SAILED through immigration.  Once we were through, a wonderful man brought a HUGE cart and ALL 14 BAGS AND ALL 4 CARSEATS ARRIVED!!!!!  Once we had everything, we were put at the front of a very long line (the kid card again!!) and taken through customs.   They put our bags through inspection, but most of the workers seemed much more interested in the Dancing Beauty, Shirley Temple and Little Monkey than in our bags (can you figure out my code names :-)).  While we were briefly waiting in line, a man behind us said, "Are you missionaries?".  I said, "Well, sort of.... my husband is working on a water project & we're moving here for the year."  He asked where we were from & when I said Tennessee he told me he had just been preaching in Nashville.  Right after we made it through all the baggage check, that man's phone began ringing & his ring tone was Waiting Here for You.  I was struggling to hold back the tears as Christy sang, "It's you we adore.  Singing Alleluia!"  Because in my heart I was definitely singing Alleluia at that very moment!!  Later I heard the same song walking through the mercado on Friday morning!!  I bought it from itunes last night :-).

Blessing #6:  Our teammates, Kris and DeeDee were waiting for us with a "Happy Birthday" sign for our Little Shirley Temple.  Once we got to them we also saw cake!!!  Because all she had been telling everyone was when she turned fwee she was going to Gamala, ride on a plane and eat cake.  It was a sweet thing as we saw Kris & DeeDee that her "dream" was coming true.  We loaded everything onto a mini-bus and started driving to Antigua.  Along the way we picked up Nina & Cata who greeted us with a huge pinata and two dozen roses!!!  We arrived at our house without any trouble and began to settle in.  It was a long day.... but we are thankful to be at our destination.