Arriving in Slovakia

The last few weeks before our departure from the U.S. were truly a whirlwind. We were finishing up meetings, which included a missions conference in VA and a Sunday presentation in the weeks just before we left. We shipped our container less than two weeks before our flight date. Jason attended the funeral of his aunt, whose death was completely unexpected and happened in the night. The steering column on our van broke as I dropped the older two boys off at school. P had to go to the acute care clinic in the middle of a school day. G had a tooth abscess that wouldn't clear up in spite of two weeks of antibiotics. The tooth finally had to be pulled to save the permanent tooth behind it. We were tying to finish up our will, as well as get all of our finances in order. We were having dinner with friends and saying good-byes. We had to move out of our home sooner than planned/expected, put our things in my parent's basement, and move in with them for the last five days. We gave our bird Beaker away after having him for seven years. I got sick with an upper respiratory infection. Two of the boys got sick with food poisoning along with the host who took us out to eat. The boys had to say good-bye to their friends and classmates. We said good-bye to our church family.

It definitely was not an easy time. In some ways it was a relief to get on the airplane, albeit with the realization we wouldn't touch U.S. soil again for years, because the "to-do" list was finally done. Well, maybe not done, but over. Jason could finally sleep again after skipping three nights of sleep in less than two weeks - one for the container, one for moving out of our house, and the last for organizing our things in my parent's basement the night before we left. And no, that was not a secret strategy for preparing for jet lag!

The day of our departure, March 20th, I woke up around 7, realizing Jason had never come to bed. It kind of felt like a wedding day - so much planning and preparation had gone into this event. I started getting ready and getting last minute things completed. Jason left to run some errands in Mvlle and I ran a bank errand in Cchrton. We both stopped by our tutor's house to say good-bye as we hadn't seen her in several weeks. That was emotional for me. She said, "It's okay. People live there!" It's funny now, but at the time the realization we were actually leaving a place and people that we loved was really hard. We called that area home for over four years and truly enjoyed the country living.

When we got back to the house, everyone was there and ready to go. G's piano teacher took the boys for a walk so we could finish putting the laundry I had washed that morning into the nooks and crannies of our suitcases, as well as finish weighing each bag. Our pastor helped Jason put his battery collection into a plastic tote - weighing and re-weighing it several times. The battery case was one of the items that accidentally did not get into our container. Because of all their weight, he had to put some in a carry-on, which ended up catching the attention of a security checkpoint officer in Germany. Thankfully he let us take them, but not until he asked a few questions! D's S.S. teacher vacuumed out our van, which a man in our church very graciously offered to sell for us. He paid us up front before we even left. That was a huge blessing as we were able to keep it up until the day we left and we didn't have to mess with listing it or showing it to people.

We finished weighing all the bags and got them loaded into the two vehicles - a van and my dad's truck. I went with my parents and two of the boys. Jason rode with a couple from our church, our pastor, G's piano teacher, and one of the boys. We drove about 45 minutes (I spent the whole time writing thank you notes) to a Golden Corral where we bought everyone lunch. We had decided it was a great place to eat our last meal in the States because we could all decide what we wanted to eat. Everyone really enjoyed it and we saved time by not having to order and wait for food. I remember looking at the Walmart that was close by and wishing I could go in one last time. My lipstick had just broken and I hadn't found time to replace it. I decided I could live without lipstick (I hardly ever wear it anyway) and I didn't need to buy anything else to stuff in our suitcases!

Thankfully the rest of the trip was uneventful as well and we arrived with plenty of time to spare. All our bags were the right weight and they didn't charge us any extra bag fees. That saved us over $200 as we had three extra suitcases and an over-sized tote. We took the tote to the special security check-point and sat down to enjoy some of Mr. W's wonderful pies. We thought we had lots of time as that airport isn't exceptionally busy, but when a couple people went to get coffee to have with their pie, they saw that the security line was longer than normal. We realized this was because we were flying around the end of the business day so there were many business travelers. We quickly took a picture, Jason handed off his coffee, and we headed downstairs to security. We had to say our good-byes while standing in line - not quite how I had envisioned it, but....

I didn't really cry. That surprised me. I think was too focused on all our carry-ons (and boy did we have plenty!), getting through security successfully, and making it to our plane on time. In some ways it was good because I held it together for the boys, but in some ways I think I should have just let the emotions out. If I had known how the next 30+ hours were going to go, I probably would have cried.

We made it to our flight and on to Toronto just fine. As we were waiting for our second flight I gave the boys the new toys we had bought for them. G ended up losing one of the pieces right off the bat, which provoked some emotion. They enjoyed the snacks the AWANA director and his wife had given them. We got on the TA flight to discover the plane was hardly filled. This was both good and bad. Good because the flight attendant let us move G so he had his own middle row. P and I shared the four seats in the row behind him. Jason was off to the left where he stayed since D would sit and sleep in his car seat. It was bad because they had to take time moving passengers around so the plane would be balanced. They were calling on people from certain rows to move. Once they finished that, they discovered a technical problem with the plane. We were less than comforted when they said it had resolved in just a few minutes. When you are flying over the Atlantic Ocean you would prefer to know that everything is going to work properly!

Each of us had our own movie screen, which was wonderful! This allowed the boys to pick kid-friendly movies rather than being forced to watch a movie that might not be suitable for all viewers. They watched a movie, ate dinner, and settled in for the night. Our TA flight was scheduled later than normal, which actually made it great for sleeping. It was over the time we'd normally be sleeping anyway, rather than leaving at dinner time and arriving in Europe in the middle of the night. I tried to sleep, but between sitting up and Peyton kicking me, it didn't go too well! I also had a strange thing happen - my feet got really swollen. It almost looked like I was eight months pregnant in the middle of July! I still don't know why that happened.

We arrived in Switzerland late due to the issues above. We had already missed our connecting flight before our plane even landed. We dragged all our carry-ons, a car seat, and our three tired boys toward a security check-point. All of a sudden we discovered we were missing a passport - a traveler's worst nightmare. I had bought lanyards for everyone. It seemed like a really good idea until one of our boys took it off and didn't put it on again. They would not let us go back on the plane. One of the security guards went to check, but didn't find it. He checked Gavin's row and the ones behind and in front of it. They were certain we had it in our luggage, but I knew we didn't. They told us that if the cleaning crew found it it might end up in lost and found. That was assuming it wasn't wrapped up in a blanket from the flight. I was truly ready to panic. I started a half-hearted search through our carry-ons while Jason went to check at the lost and found. I burst into tears thinking we were going to be stranded in Switzerland until we could get a replacement. I don't know why - except that God intervened - but another security guard offered to go check in the plane. I don't think that was the most popular choice for him to make since that was implying the other guy didn't look well enough, but he did it. He did a more thorough search and he found it. It seems it fell on the floor and probably slid forward during landing. Since the plane was so empty, there weren't bags or passengers to stop it or to see it. I was both relieved and ecstatic at the same time!

We headed to a desk to schedule our next flight. There was nothing available, even if we split into two smaller groupings. We had to wait a couple hours, take a flight to Germany, and then take a fourth flight to our final destination. That was not the news we wanted to hear, especially since this meant we'd be arriving seven hours later than originally scheduled and had to add another flight to our itinerary. Thankfully they gave us food vouchers - something I've never had before. We found a nice little restaurant and started spending our "money". We actually had to order several times to use it all up! Peyton and I weren't feeling too well at this point so we stuck with fruit smoothies.

We survived our next flight, dragging our carry-ons through security and passport control in Germany, and after one more flight arrived at our destination. We found luggage carts and began loading all our luggage, which gratefully, all made it to our final location. At this point we were all exhausted. We had left my parents' house around lunch time the day before and it was now night-time the following day. And we still had to drive over an hour to get to our teammates' home. We had dragged 10 carry-ons, a pillow, and a car seat on and off four flights (never again!). We had gone through security three (or was it four?) times. Two of us (including one of the boys) were frisked. We had crossed six time zones. Several of our regional teammates were at the airport with smiles, hugs, and flowers. We had only met two of them. I'm glad to say that now thy are our friends, but at the time it was a little intimidating to be met by virtual strangers after all we had been through. At that point I would have preferred my mom! I asked one of them if it was a good time to cry! I didn't, but I sure felt like it. There would have been a lot of emotions communicated in those tears.

Our drivers took the scenic route, which took us through the main part of Budapest. It was beautiful with all the lights on the bridges, which span the Danube. I am thankful for that nice memory in the midst of the jet lag fog I was in. We continued on toward our teammates' home, where nicely made beds greeted us. It felt so good to get in bed that night. It was the first night in our new country, our new home.