Leaving on a Jet Plane

Thursday, July 08, 2010

I am sitting at the Open Bible National Office using their internet on our second full day here in Trinidad. We are in temporary housing for a month and will have internet there in a few days. Everything feels abit surreal...a bit like a dream. One thing that helps me is that I have been on the road, staying in many places for the past year, so being in one more place, one more bed...is familiar. I do look forward to settling into a permanent location. It's hard to believe that we are really here. My heartache is still fresh from leaving my family, especially my granddaughters. I close my eyes and see Madison's and Maiah's faces and yes...tears flow (like now!) I look forward to the first time we can skype!

Our good friends, Jack and Laurel Ancone hosted a family reunion on their ranch in Texas before we left the country. What a gift to our family! There are no words...Jack and Laurel drove us to the Houston Airport on July 6th. Here are some interesting moments on our trip...

As we were landing in the Miami Airport, our plane pulled up quickly and had to circle around again due to another plane on the ground crossing the runway...Thank you Jesus for safety!

We were getting ready to go through security and a lady started screaming, "Somebody help me!" Never saw her, just heard her...others went to help...still don't know what was wrong.

As we stood in line at the Miami Airport getting ready to go through security, a man in front of us left his suitcase and walked off...hmmm...we told the security officer. I kept thinking, we need to be farther away from that suitcase than we are! It was good to get through security.

Flight from Miami was uneventful (Yeah!) Landed in Trinidad at about 10:30 p.m. Stood in long lines to go through customs. Got up to the window and we didn't have the proper paperwork, so we were sent back to call our contact in Trinidad, who had the proper paperwork on the otherside of the wall but there was no one free to go get them. We waited...finally an officer who saw us waiting came up to us and asked why and how he could help. He was able to get us temporary entry into the country with the understanding that we would go to Immigration as soon as possible. (We went this morning to start the process) We ended up getting to our temporary housing at 2 p.m. (very tired). Our wonderful brothers and sisters in Trinidad had sandwiches made and a few groceries to get us started! Our housing is very nice and comfortable and we have air conditioning!

So far we have been to the National office for Open Bible and visited with President Andy Homer and his assistant Pastor David. We have been to the bank to exchange the small amount of cash we had into TT dollars, to the mall to get a cell phone, the grocery store to get a few things, the immigration office and back to the National office today to use their internet. We will get internet at our temporary lodging in a couple of days and then Ashleigh will back to school!

Our son Jordan left this morning for a missions trip to Jamaica. We made our first international call from our cell phone to let him know we will be praying for him. He left Texas with a serious sunburn and has been suffering since. He finally went to the doctor before leaving the country and found out he has 1st and second degree burns. He now has medicine to put on the burn and some for the pain. Hard on a Mom's heart!

I don't know how often I will blog, but this is a beginning...God's is writing a new chapter in my life!