So Long Ordinary

Well, after more than 30 hours of travel, we've made it.  We're all well, especially after some sleep. Holy jet lag Batman.  When we first got into our apartment, I was cold, overwhelmed, and weepy.  Thank you, Lord for hot showers and five hour "naps."  We're all ready to go now.  Except that it is bedtime and not morning.  Oh, my.

We're here!  Just had our first American breakfast (yum) at the airport in Seattle.  One more flight to Boise and then...sleep!  It's been so amazing to experience American organization, proffessionalism, manners, and convenience again.  Wow.  Culture shock!

We made it to Hong Kong!  Now waiting to check in for our flight to Japan/Seattle. Things are getting progressively colder and more modern.  Love traveling!

Whew! We are all checked in at the airport in Jakarta and waiting for our flight to Hong Kong.  It's 10 p.m. here and we're all a little punchy.  Already.  ;-)  Our flight leaves at midnight.  So far, everything has been smooth sailing so keep praying!  Next stop...Hong kong!

We arrived safely in Jakarta yesterday!  We've been enjoying modern city life and time spent at the guesthouse with other missionaries - making new friends and re-uniting with old ones.   It has been raining pretty much non-stop since we got here and certain areas of Jakarta are flooding.  Please pray that none of this flooding will cause issues with our plans here in the city or our drive back out to the airport to catch our flight to Hong Kong/Seattle/Boise tomorrow night! Here's a photo of the girls in one of the malls here.  Love the Chinese New Year decorations!

The girls and Ester.  Ester is a sweet, shy, quiet little girl from next door.  She's also our helper's daughter, so she comes over almost everyday to play with the girls while her mom works.  On Friday, she just wanted so badly to spend as much time as possible with us, so we brought her with us to the MAF dock to say our good-byes.  All four girls spent the time at the dock playing around in the grass.  (Remember that post of the girls playing in the water a few weeks ago?  This is that same area, now bone-dry.) We're going to miss Ester...and so many other friends here. I'm not going to mention how very much we will miss our MAF family. (okay, guess I just did)   Sniff. Well, what a surreal feeling.  Our house is pretty echo-y.  Since we're having the interior painted while we're gone, I took down all of our pictures and wall hangings.  I also put away breakables and special items that might get damaged just sitting around the house f...

First of all, a huge thank you for all the kind comments on my last post.  I love hearing from you - through comments on this blog, Facebook, emails, phone calls, real life conversations, and the grapevine ! It was a little hard to put such an honest post out there, but you've all encouraged me so much with your words.  Thank you. It feels like ages ago, but it was only a few weeks ago that we took the girls and the dog down to the MAF dock to play in the river.  The river was pretty high, which creates the perfect little shallow pool to play in. We took a lunch and made a picnic of it. Check out that huge log that floated down the river!  It was the perfect place to play. We should totally do this more often.  (Except maybe not take the dog?  This is where she got the water in her ears that started the ear infection that we're still battling!) While the girls played, I sat on the bench and watched the monkeys play - and by monkeys I don't mean kids.  ...