Our Traveling Circus

As I write this we are sitting in the Lima airport waiting to catch our final flight to Arequipa….thinking about what in the world has just happened in the past week wishing I had taken more time to sit and chat with you….my apologies…I’ll try not to let it happen again. Until then beware this is going to be a long read. Grab your coffee and blanket, snuggle up and come with us on our journey of remembering this past week, days and hours.

Eli and Ro "helping" us pack

When I think about this last week I can only picture boxes, newspapers and a bunch of smiling faces willing to help us out! Maybe they didn’t know the mess they were getting into when they volunteered to help….but then again they know us well enough to know exactly what a disaster we can be sometimes…so probably yes they knew. The grace, generosity, time, joy, love etc . that was extended out to us this week was unbelievable. Hours and hours of time spent doing nothing but packing, organizing and loading our households. Years of memories being boxed up and stored away for the joy of us unveiling it several months from now (hopefully). Our families are so grateful and blown away at the sacrifice our New Braunfels family shared with us by helping us get organized, packed up and had fun with us (I “heart” Paloma!). We also know the sacrifice it was emotionally to suck down the difficulty of watching us…helping us…leave. Thank you New Braunfels family for the help, for the meals, for the fun, for the send off and for simply loving us!

Eli trying to give us a hint!

Thank you Eli and Ronan for your patience with us. You both have been such troopers thru this transition. Knowing life is different…changing. Most of the time just taking it in stride and going with the flow and sometimes flipping out just wanting our attention. Your willingness to be jolted from place to place…never knowing where you will sleep. Poor Eli would have such late nights that by Monday night he just crawled up on the floor in nothing but diaper to go to sleep! I got the hint. Such troopers. We are proud of you boys and the men you are becoming. We pray that the Lord reveals amazing visions to you both through this adventure!                                                                                                         

        

Thank you family outside of New Braunfels…moms, dads, brothers, sisters, extended family and friends thank you for understanding the Lords call on our lives, thank you for supporting us in love and thank you for always being there!

So now we are in Lima! Waiting.  Kids (including John) napping and the rest of us anticipating just what comes next. Such a lesson in how we should always live our lives, anticipating just what the Lord has in store next! After VERY few hours of sleep, especially for Jenn and John, we woke up on Tuesday morning luggage packed and ready to go!  I, being pregnant, was thrilled that I can excusably travel in “stretchy” pants, while the rest of these suckers have to be uncomfortable! Bonus for the pregnant girl!!!! Getting to the airport and saying last goodbyes was hard and our last reality check. We are really doing this! Here we go!  We had a layover in Atlanta and were able to squeeze Sarah and Evelyn and then loaded ourselves on the plane for the long flight to Lima. No turning back now. The boys did great, we got some rest and overall had a good flight. The real circus began when we got our luggage. Two families carrying all their lives in 2 car seats, 2 strollers, 2 diaper bags, 4 carry-on’s and 9 pieces of luggage is truly an “American” circus! Loading all of that plus all 6 of us into the taxi van was like fitting into a clown car! But we did it thanks to the determined nature of the Peruvians. I know we gave them a few laughs!

The back of the taxi PACKED with our stuff

Stacked high to the top of the van!

These guys helped us unload all our stuff!

We slept a few hours in a hotel nearby and now here were are….Tuesday February 6, 2013. Of course we are already operating on Peruvian time (which is late) so we decided to get the airport an hour before our flight. Ha! Note to self and all those traveling to visit us (hint, hint), save yourselves 2 hours before flight from Lima to Arequipa or you probably won’t make it. Flights often get overbooked and we got pushed back to a later flight. Although you may be thinking….oh no, that stinks! It was perfect. We were 300 lbs over our allotted luggage weight per Peruvian rules!! Since they had to bump our flight we were given 200 lbs of free luggage weight and free lunch! Seriously?!?! This circus has been given a gift of grace today! What an incredible blessing to us!

Now we wait. Who knows if our carry-on’s, which are by the way, TWICE the size of Peruvian allotted carry on size, will actually make it on the plane. Hey, we have made it this far so we can’t be worried about it now!