Well, we made it! It is such a wonderful feeling to be able to say “we made it” and it be for real, for real! I told our teammate, Tara D., today that it is great to know that I don’t really have to fly again until 2011 if I don’t want to. Now, whether that happens or not, I don’t know. But…it feels great to begin our process of settling into Lima.
We don’t have any great pictures really, but John Mark took a good picture of us and posted it on our team website. It is just after we got through everything in the airport in Lima and were about to head to our apartment for the first time. It’s like 11:30pm, so please excuse the absent look Cailyn has in the picture. She really was excited. So, click here to see that.
Now, it all begins. We hope to really start setting a couple of things up tomorrow, and then it’s in full swing till the baby arrives…and then it’s like really in full swing, I guess.
We definitely feel taken care of. God laid out everything just perfectly for us, and we could not have asked for a smoother transition. Ok…wait. There was this one thing.
If you look at the picture I linked you to above, you can see those bags we have. They are large army duffle bags, and each of them is maxed out to the 50 lb. limit. We arrived at the airport in Houston yesterday with 7 of them. We only made it to Lima with 5. Oops.
See, every time we have flown, Cailyn has been a lap child, and we have always been allowed (even internationally) to pack her 2 bags. In addition to that, to alleviate the stress of figuring out what all we would NOT bring with us from the States of the things we had accumulated, we decided last minute that the extra charge for one of us to have a 3rd bag was worth being able to bring our new things. So, we had 7 bags.
When we got to the airport, we were immediately stopped by this guy as we made our way to the check-in counter, and he had a notion that our bags (yes, ALL 7 of them) were oversized. Uh…no. We’ve done our research. So, he measures them all (of course to find that they are within the limit), and then he asks us (as he is looking very curiously at them all), “How many bags do you have?!” I immediately said, “We know we are going to have to pay extra. We have 7.” Then, he looks at Justin and says, “Oh, well, where are you going?” After hearing our destination was Peru, he then lets us know that Peru is one of like 3 countries (IN THE WORLD) that has some embargo rule, and you cannot even pay extra to take anything more than your 2 bags in. 2 is your limit. Uh…what? Our research had somehow failed us here. This was not what we wanted to hear as we were walking up to check our bags. Not the best timing. Then, he tells us that we might have the option of upgrading our seats to first class, and the first class passengers are allowed 3 bags. Oh…great. So, in the heat of the moment, Justin and I decide that it would be cheaper (according to the price the guy had just quoted us) to just upgrade one of us to first class and be able to take the bag with us instead of trying to have the bag mailed to us or something like that. (ps-we already had a lot of things my parents are bringing in August when they come for the baby’s birth…we really weren’t sure we could add to that). So…to shorten this even longer story, the lady at the counter spends like 30 minutes just trying to figure out what is really the rule, and when it is all said and done, she has also informed us that Cailyn is not allowed 2 bags, she is only allowed 1. UGH! So, at the very last minute, we had to unzip each bag, decide based on what we saw on top which 2 we would then pack back up in Teri’s car, and proceed with just 5 of them. Not cool.
God gave Justin and I a very strong measure of peace and the ability to laugh things off, though. This morning, our first morning to need all of our things in our suitcases, was interesting as we were able to say, “oh, uh…remember what else was in that one bag…my____________ ” or “the_____________”. All is replaceable in the immediate future, and the things that are more expensive to replace, we can wait on. Out of sight, out of mind, I guess.
So, minus that…our trip here was wonderful! =) Cailyn’s plane behavior was beyond wonderful, and there were TONS of great movies to choose from on the plane. Oh…and we got fed twice. It was nice.
Thanks to everyone who was specifically praying for our trip, Cailyn’s behavior on the plane, and our safety. God really took care of us…but what else can we expect!?
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New Subject, and really completely unrelated:
We also wanted to share with you a few pictures that we were able to have taken due to a great gift from our teammates, the Fletchers. Hannah Vickers took 2 yr. old pictures of Cailyn while we were in Abilene. Cailyn was (honestly) fairly horrible while it was going on, but Hannah’s expertise shone through! Here are some of the better ones…well, and I might include some not so “better” ones so you get the idea of what Hannah had to work with. She was a trooper! Thanks Fletchers and Hannah, for being so sweet to think of our family in this way. We will cherish these pictures forever!



we got this next smile all due to Grover in her hand…

don’t be fooled, this is what we actually looked like almost the ENTIRE time…oh, and with no bow on the head now…

just lovely, I know.
Oh, and the next picture shows what she wanted to do basically the entire time we were out there taking pictures. Hannah did a great job here. Now…if only our child had been smiling at the camera!

Her dress was SOAKED after this…photo shoot…over.
I’ll leave you with another cute one…

Thanks, Hannah, you sure did a great job with a difficult client!
Thanks, Fletchers, we are honored that you treated us to this!