A Long-Awaited Day

Yesterday, August 20, we flew to San Jose, Costa Rica. So many amazing things happened--miracles, really--that I want to share. This will be a long post, so beware. Troy worked all through the night Sunday night and all the way up to about 3:15 AM Monday finalizing the packing. All told, there were seven pieces of luggage and seven totes.

While waiting for Troy to arrive at the hotel, the kids and I spent a few minutes praying together. How precious to hear my children praying for our future ministry here in Costa Rica. After a speedy shower, we headed to the airport in Jackson. Upon our arrival out front around 4:30 AM, we were greeted by a man from our home church who had come to see us off! We were so touched that he would get up that early just to say goodbye to our family! All of the pictures from this earliest stage of the journey were ones he took for us. I began the bag check-in process while Troy took the borrowed pickup over to the long-term parking area.

With great trepidation, I watched each piece of luggage as it was placed on the scale and weighed. 47 pounds....49 pounds....48 pounds....one was even 50 pounds (the allowed limit). My genius husband had packed each suitcase or tote in such a way to allow maximum usage without incurring over-the-limit fees. The man weighing all of the bags had just completed the process when Troy walked in. With dread, I asked the man helping us at the ticket counter how much we owed for the baggage. We had two extra pieces than we thought were allowed, so we figured the fees would be astronomical (we guess about $500). Imagine my shock and great surprise when he looked at me and stated, "Nothing." I stood there in complete shock, tears filling my eyes. I don't know how it came about, but somehow God worked a miracle there.

Aside from the GPS in one of the backpacks that completely threw off the TSA agents (they rescanned that thing at least 3-4 times. Why they didn't just open it an look through it, I'm not sure), security was a breeze. By the time we used the bathroom and arrived at our gate, we only had about a five minute wait before we were allowed to pre-board. Here's another instance of God going before us. Originally our seat assignments were not together and we were planning on asking to be switched. But when we printed out our boarding passes, ALL OF OUR SEATS WERE TOGETHER. We literally filled up an entire row--three on one side and three on the other! The gate attendant announced that they hadn't gotten the plane they were originally supposed to get, but ended up with a larger one. God's handiwork! The girls and I sat on one side of the aisle and Troy and the boys sat on the other. I think I'll let them share on their blog about what they thought of their first flights, but it was precious to hear their "ooohs!" and "aaahs!" throughout the experience.

I'd long been dreading the flight into and out of Atlanta because of all the horror stories I've heard of that particular airport. Plus, knowing that we literally had to go clear across the terminal to get to our next gate---in just over an hour---really sent me into a panic. We hustled as quickly as you can with small children pulling carry-on luggage and bogged down with heavy backpacks to the "train". After one of the girls were almost left behind (Troy realized what was about to happen and stepped out; the other passengers rallied around us and forcibly held open the doors so they could both quickly step in and yank the luggage behind them), we realized the hard way that those bars are placed there for a reason. Those trains start and stop in such a rush that those who weren't holding on careened into the wall or against fellow passengers. A dear woman grabbed onto Tori for me and said, "I've got her, Mama," to which I was extremely grateful. We arrived at our gate in plenty of time for our flight.

Once again, all of our seats were together---this time at the literal back of the plane. We settled into a longer plane ride, roughly 3 hours, and the kids enjoyed many more firsts: first time to use the headphones and watch an on-board movie, first time for plane snacks (our short flight from Jackson to Atlanta was too bumpy for snack service), and the first time to use the tiny plane bathrooms (well, that was a first for Mama as well, actually). It was so beautiful to look out the window at first the Florida keys and then the open Gulf water. About an hour into our flight, Troy and I looked at each other, both of us clearly overwhelmed emotionally. We were feeling a mixture of exhaustion, sheer joy, relief that all of the hard work of the summer was behind us, but at the same time, utter terror of the unknown. He said to me, "What did we just get ourselves into?" And I knew the sentiment, because it was exactly what I'd been feeling. It's one thing to say that we're called to minister in Mexico, or attend language school in Costa Rica. It's another thing to actually do it.

Once we arrived in San Jose, we waited until nearly everyone had deplaned before getting off. The first stop was through immigration. We snaked through the line, waiting about 20-30 minutes for our turn with an immigration official. Our paperwork was fine. Our passports were fine. But we didn't know our address. The thing is, there are no street address in Costa Rica. Here, "address" refers to which area or district you live in (we are in the San Francisco de dos Rios district.) I had printed out the paper our Big Brother sent us with this information on it, but it had gotten packed in one of the totes. Thankfully, Troy had a piece of paper with the information of a market near the language school on it and the official was able to discern about where we would be. After about 10-15 minutes spent trying to get that all figured out, she stamped our visas and cleared us through to the baggage area.

We were anxious to see if all of our luggage had arrived with us. At the Jackson airport, Troy had wrapped a bit of hot pink duct-tape around each of the handles on our suitcases. Turning the corner to the baggage area, there were several hot-pink suitcase handles grouped together off to the side, and two men were loading the seven totes onto a large cart. Troy finished rounding up the luggage and counted pieces. I counted pieces. The kids counted pieces. Our next miracle was that ALL PIECES OF CHECKED BAGGAGE ARRIVED WITH US IN COSTA RICA!

The next stop was customs, and I was dreading it. Sometimes they will wave you through. Sometimes they'll open a piece of luggage or two and then wave you through. But sometimes they'll insist upon opening every piece. Sometimes you won't pay any "duties" for your luggage. But sometimes they'll make you pay quite a lot. And there's no predicting how it will go. We had our backpacks and carry-ons, and the man pushed the rest of our luggage on the cart. At the security checkpoint, he handed the customs sheet we'd filled out on the plane to another man and unloaded each piece onto the conveyer. On the other side, he loaded it back onto the cart and off we went. I figured that it was just the first step in the customs process. So imagine my shock when we rounded a corner....and were outside the airport! Our last miracle of the day was that we MADE IT THROUGH CUSTOMS WITHOUT PAYING ANY DUTIES OR WITHOUT THEM OPENING A THING!

With everything that has happened this summer in preparing to get here, and then with everything that happened yesterday in actually arriving, it is quite clear to us that we are where we are supposed to be, at the time ordained by God. There are some things to get used to, of course. While many people speak at least broken English, this is most definitely a foreign culture with a foreign language. We've already discovered that you can get just about anything you want (including most brands from the States, and even most fast-food restaurants. We've seen places like Church's Chicken, Burger King, McDonald's, we ate Pizza Hut pizza for dinner last night, there's a Papa John's, Taco Bell, Subway, and many more--many of those options right inside the Walmart!), but it costs. A lot. A simple box fan that costs $20 in the States costs at least $40 here. A small package of Hershey's Kisses is between $6-$8. Spending more for basic necessities is just going to be something we have to get used to. At the same time, you can't put a price on the views we see from our second-floor balcony.

There will be so many other things to share with you throughout the next year. I wanted to include more pictures from yesterday, but for some reason, I can't get it to post more than one. So I'll upload them to our Photobucket account and share the link to that album so that anyone can see them.

Thank you for your prayers and support. You helped make this possible for us. And your continued prayers and support will enable us to thrive as we learn Spanish and adjust to living in a new culture.

There's so much more in store to come! And we're so thankful and blessed to have the privilege to serve God in this way.