We woke up a year ago today around 6am to get ready and pack the last few items before heading to the airport. Our precious friends, Jimmy and Valarie volunteered to drive us so that we wouldn't have to pay to park our car there all week. Thanks guys, it was a tremendous help.
We arrived 2 hours early since you never know how long it'll take to go through check in and security for international flights. There weren't a whole lot of people that morning so we got through rather quickly. Since we had so much extra time we walked around, got some breakfast and made a few last minute phone calls to family.
Many of you know what a nervous flyer I am. Even though I've done it dozens of times, it never gets any easier, that is until this trip. So many of you prayed for my peace and safety and I just want you to know that I felt those prayers. I had such a calm spirit during take off and kept repeating the verse God gave me, "The Lord will keep you from all harm-- he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore." Psalms 121:7-8 I was actually able to sleep. Four hours later we saw this-Guatemala City.
On the flight and at their airport it was obvious which families were there to pick up kids. We saw many moms and dads with a diaper bag and empty stroller. We would look at each other and smile with that understanding communication without words.
After going through customs we found our driver that was sent from our agency to take us to the hotel. Once we checked in and went up to our room we needed to rest for a while. A little bit later we made our way down to the hospitality suite for a cocktail hour - just a fancy way of saying snack and visitation time. We meet other families who had been there a few days and were leaving in the morning, some that had just gotten their babies that day, and others who arrived with us. We had a brief meeting with the staff to find out how tomorrow was going to play out and then had a McDonald's dinner in our room.
We unpacked a few things, got ready for bed and watched a little TV in Spanish. This would be our last night as a family of three, and our last night of uninterrupted sleep for a while. Only 12 more hours...but who could sleep!
