We're Back

What a day Tuesday was.
I knew it was a little crazy to attempt to return to Honduras with 7 kids by myself, but the offer of a weekend at Women of Faith with the ladies from Faith (our home church) was too tempting. So I stayed a week after Harold had to return. Mom watched the kids (with the older boys help). They went to Chuck E Cheese and orientation night at their old school to see friends. I snuck away for a weekend of singing and encouragement and dinner at the cheesecake factory where I didn't have to help anyone with their food!
Soo.... along came the dreaded day when we had to get up at 3am in order to leave for the airport by 4. Everything went pretty well in Tampa getting checked in and the only problem in security was 2 nerf guns the boys threw in and a package of oxyclean (over which there was much discussion as to what chemicals were included and whether they were legal-as if in my condition I could actually make a bomb out of oxyclean powder!) Then we got on the plane. It was full. Entirely so. Fitting our carryons into the bins was almost impossible. One bulging bag was partially dumped into a blue plastic airplane bag so that we could fit it overhead and make our slightly effeminate steward happy. I was sweating but we were in our seats at last. Everyone travelled well-Tikvah even fell asleep.
Next was Houston, where we reclaimed all our carryons (under advice from said steward that checking them might have been wise even though it costs money) and discovered that the Houston airport is incredibly LARGE and not nearly as easy as Tampa to navigate. We lugged what seemed like hundreds of pounds of carryons through miles of airport terminals, lost sight of the boys at one point when I ran to catch Charis and then realized I had made a turn at a three way and didn't know if the boys saw. Infamous steward saw the boys searching and reprimanded them for separating from us and told them which direction to go. We reached our international gate as they were boarding, had our passport checked and headed on another plane. This time Tikvah was not thrilled to get back on but we made it through the flight.
At customs in San Pedro, we had a very gracious lady who felt compassion on this family with so many children and let us go to the front of the line, she didn't even make me give her all the declaration slips I had carefully filled out. Josiah and Charis gathered luggage while I finished handing passports and pointing to children. Then we pushed our things to the security checkpoint and they asked us to open two bags. One gentleman was rather interested in a stick of pepperoni, but we made it through without a hangup. Our bus drivers were waiting with a sign and helped us load the luggage, which was Wonderful to this tired Mama. Nathan was quick thinking enough to ask if we could get something to eat at the airport Wendys-the only restaurant at the San Pedro airport. So he waited in line while I took the girls to the bathroom. After a long wait we finally had meals to the eight of us and our 3 companions and we were on our way.
Coming out of San Pedro our first holdup was a jacknifed Pepsi truck. Crushed 2 liter bottled were all over the road and people were everywhere combing the ditches for free Pepsi. It was like a party, with little kids guzzling down bottles and moms walking away toting as many bottles as they could carry. The poor driver just stood there looking miserable while an officer took down information. It looked like maybe he had attempted to back into this little road and caught the edge of the ditch on the way. Most of the ride after that was uneventful. Piles of pinapple along the road for sale. A look at the beautiful Lake Johoah, where our driver stopped for a plate of fried fish. A stop at Bongos for the bathroom and cold bottled water (we had sweated in that stopped bus for a while in San Pedro). On past Comayagua's military base and Word of Life Honduras camp, the El Indio coffee factory and finally the edge of the city. We went around the city and through El Centro in the Guanacaste section. Unbelievable that someone could acutally drive a bus through those narrow alleys. There's some poitical graffiti around but no sign of uprising. Finally we recognized the road up our mountain. The driver actually took us all the way to our door! Did I mention these guys are incredible drivers? How they can manuever such a large vehicle into such a small space is beyond me. Harold greeted us at the gate and he and the boys started to unload while a missionary friend pulled up with dinner. God is so good. Beginning to end was 3am to10pm Florida time-a 19 hour day.
School started with a half day today and everyone seemed to do well. We're mixing up some cookies to celebrate. The kids are playing with friends whose Mom works at school so they are here for the afternoon while she finishes. Our boxes arrived yesterday so I've been unpacking suitcases and boxes we shipped earlier this summer. They were wrapped in green plastic, which everyone teased Harold about. He told them they were just jealous because our boxes were so easy to spot and that he had actually looked for some red plastic too because it's like Christmas when they come. Thanks for your prayers for us. They were very evident through our trip.