Sorry for the length but it's been a crazy week! Last Wed. morning at 6am Central time we left my Daddy's house and headed to the airport. 54 hours later we drove into Rainbow...back home!
It was quite a trip. First off, Joshua was amazing! Thank you for the prayers. We left New Orleans at 11 am and got to Chicago just after lunch. We had a 7 hour layover in Chicago before our 13 1/2 hour flight to Qatar. Thankfully Chicago had a children's play area so we let them run it out for about 2-3 hours! We ate Chili's in the airport...our last American meal. It turned out it would pretty much be the last time any of us ate until we arrived home. The food on this airlines was that bad!
The "long" flight was from Chicago to Doha, Qatar. Thankfully it was a red-eye. So after a little night-time medicine for Joshua (I really THINK we heard him sniffle before the flight so he needed that nighttime medicine, right? ;) ) everyone pretty much passed out on the flight, except for me. I just can't sleep on airplanes. The bad thing was, we left Chicago at 11pm and flew directly into the new day. We only had about an hour of nighttime.
We arrived in Doha at nighttime as well (due to the time change) and had another 7 hour layover. This was NOT a good layover. The airport in Doha is extremely small for the amount of flights and passengers that come through it. It was very crowded and busy. 7 hours there went by so slowly. Then the flight leaving was late....which made us late getting us into Johannesburg. We landed in Joburg with 45 minutes to get to our next (and final) flight. After two days of traveling we wanted nothing more than to get home! PLUS: the next flight out of Joburg on that airlines was Sunday. We'd have to wait 2 days in a hotel with no baggage if we missed it. Of course this is what we worried about the entire flight. We knew it would be close. No matter how many times we tried to give it to the Lord (and yes He did tell us He had it under control) we kept taking it back and worrying.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7
So when we arrived at Joburg we rushed off the plane. Imagine sitting at the back of a 777...with 6 people in your party and all the bags you're carrying on. We pushed and shoved and asked for forgiveness along the way. We even charged through first class because they were leisurely taking their time getting off the plane and hadn't opened the curtain for the rest of the plane yet. We got someone to take us to the front of the line at immigration and tipped him well. We literally ran to the airline desk with 30 minutes to spare before our next flight. Nope. She wasn't letting us on! It was 9:27am for a 10am flight and she wouldn't let us board. I just wanted to cry! Two days worth of hotels? Are you serious? When we're this close??
But of course God was all over it. Apparently Malawian Airlines (an airlines that had gone out of business before we even arrived in Malawi) was back up and running using Ethiopian Airlines old jets. They had daily late afternoon flights. These flights just started two months ago! Seriously? Wow God! What a blessing!
So we spent two hours at the ticket counter getting our tickets transferred from South African Airlines (whom I'm still ticked at) to Ethiopian/Malawian Airlines. And all of this had to be done through Qatar because it was their fault we were late and they were paying for the changes. Awesome!
Later that afternoon we were in the skies once again- exhausted beyond measure- on our way home! We made it safely even though all of our bags got left behind in Joburg. We arrived to a very loving welcome and lots of cheers and hugs from the Rainbow kids! What a joy to be home!
For the past 5 days we have done NOTHING but clean. Yes, we put up everything we could and covered everything with sheets but those barriers did nothing to stop 5 months of African dirt from creeping onto every imaginable surface of our house. All clothes, sheets, and towels have had to be washed (and our washing machine is broken so we're toting it across the complex to another machine). All dishes, pots, and pans have to be washed! Even the walls and floors have to be scrubbed.
Yesterday was the worst! As we were ALMOST done with all of the dishes in the kitchen we opened the last cabinet to pull everything out. That's where they were. A nest of roaches and mice. For the next hour we chased, killed, sprayed, and caught everything that moved. At the end all of our newly cleaned dishes that we'd just spent days on...were covered in Doom (bug spray). All cabinets were emptied and Jeremy spent the rest of the day caulking cracks, drilling into walls and floors to put termite and bug spray in the holes, and basically killing everything.
Today I woke up and wanted to cry. It felt like I was starting over again. After 4 days of cleaning we were doing it all over again. But 4 of the Rainbow girls helped out and we have JUST NOW got it all done! The kitchen is cleaned and the clothes are...well, I've still got a ton to wash but I'm too tired to walk across the complex to the machine. So it will have to wait.
In all, we are very happy...yet very tired. It's good to be home and we can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for us! It must be something pretty amazing because Satan seems to be trying to keep us down! Thankfully Christ's strength is all I need! To God be the glory!
