Well, we finally made it to my parents house on Wed. night about midnight. It has been an adventure already! For those who haven't yet heard the story....
We ended up leaving Cochabamba about 9:45 on Sunday night, even though we were on the 8:00 flight. Aerosur canceled our flight and bumped us to the 9:15 flight which didn't actually leave on time (we were kicking ourselves for not getting on the 8am flight, but found out later they canceled that one too - so we would have been in the same boat anyway!). We knew we were pushing it (our American flight left Santa Cruz at 11:30) but we still thought we might have enough time to make it. We landed in Santa Cruz and Josh went to pick up the bags while the girls and I raced to the American counter (where I was first in line by the way!) where we waited... and waited...
Apparantly the American employees had already checked everyone else through and were all upstairs (being shortstaffed) where they were handling the gate check-in. So we waited for about an hour and a half until the plane had left until someone came to attend to us. At which point they told us that there was no space on the next day's flight, and they would put us on standby. We had to be back at the airport at 6:00 the next morning.
At this point, the kids were loosing it. We made it to a hotel about midnight, (on the way in the taxi, Michaela said "I want to go home." And I thought, "It's going to be a long 2 months."), where we crashed. As Michaela got into bed, the sweet thing said, "Thank you, Lord." Our children sure help put things in perspective.
After a restless night of sleeping with a 3 year old (Josh slept with Eliana, and I don't think he slept much better), we all got up at 5:30 to make it to the airport at 6:00 - only to find a horrendous line! Apparantly everyone else (not having little children) showed up at 5:00. We stood in line for an hour and a half, navigated airport taxes, security and customs only to arrive at the gate to be turned away. The flight was too full. We had to come back the next day and do it all again!!
This time we headed to La Quinta (our favorite place to stay because it has apartment style rooms with a kitchen, and I was desperate to wash and sterilize bottles. I have never mourned the ease of nursing so much as on this trip!) We spent a nice day (as nice as it can be with 3 grumpy kids who are running off of 5 hours of sleep), although Michaela and Jana started coming down with a really bad cough.
The next morning we hauled ourselves to the airport again. The line was much shorter, but when we arrived, they informed us the flight was full - again! - and if we wanted to ensure our seats on the flight, it would be $800 per ticket! I looked at them like they were crazy - did we look like millionaires?? At this point all 3 kids started crying at once, the attendent went to talk to his manager - and wonder of wonders, they waived the fee and got us on the flight (although we were sitting in 3 different seats!) I don't know if it was out of pity or the fact they were plain fed up with 3 fussy children!
The flight actually went pretty well - we got our seats switched around and ended up sitting all together. The kids did well and we arrived in Miami at around 4:30... I have never been so tired or so glad to get somewhere!
We enjoyed a day in Miami (it was supposed to be 2 days) with the Holways (our coworkers from Memphis) and then boarded another flight to Detroit, where we arrived about 11pm on Wed. It was so good to be at my parents finally! We touched down to the announcement that the Red Wings had won the finals - aahh, Detroit!
The next day we took the girls to the doctor because Jana's cough had become much worse and she was showing signs of a urinary tract infection - I sure missed my Dr. Monroy (and his prices) - but the doc was real nice and we got an antibiotic for her and thankfully she's doing much better.
Other than that, we've just been getting ready for our big road trip and enjoying a few events with the Livonia church - one of the churches that provides half our salary. And of course time with the grandparents and Uncle Matt. Nyanya and Babu watched the girls one afternoon so we could go on a date for our anniversary. We saw the new Indiana Jones movie - complete with Dr. Pepper! - did some shopping and went out to eat. Might I say that as much as my parents enjoy the kids, we are wearing them out - although "we" wear me out too!
We leave tomorrow for Memphis - keep us in your prayers and hopefully I'll have some pictures to post soon.
