We Are Here!

Hello.....it's Beth, and I am going to attempt our (and my) first blog. As you read in the title....we are finally here. I have lost all sense of time...but am told it is Tuesday evening on the 19th of June. We have had quite the journey so far....I will bring you all up to speed, forgive any typos as I am exhausted. We started out in Spokane with what we thought was 21 suitcases...but in fact there were 23, don't ask....it still stumps our fearless leader.  We got to Seattle....good , short flight. When we got there, my dad had to go out to the Emerites counter to get our boarding passes and vouchers for the hotel stay in Dubai. We thought we had plenty of time....but I think we were in some kind of warp speed time continueum...because by the end we were racing to get to our already boarding plane. So my dad goes out....and said he would call us all if he needed us. Of course he did..,.they needed to see all our faces and passports...big , duh moment I think. So, we leave Todd with all our carry on bags so we could have an easier time getting through security again. Sarah and I got our stuff first....as we were standing in the loooong line to get through security...which by the way...we were supposed to be boarding in 30 minutes....here comes my mom....by herself mind you (if you know my mother and I, you would know we both have a debilitating disease called...Don'teverleavemealoneIhavenosenseofdirectionandwillgetlostitis!) It worried Sarah and I, but knew we needed to get through so we could relieve Todd to get his boarding pass. Oh, another part of the story is that Mo and Todd did not have hotel vouchers for when we got to Dubai...we were going to wing it and do a covert, smuggling of them into the hotel if necessary...I am only kidding:) So , Sarah ended up having to go back out with Todd because he had no idea where he was going...it has hit the third generation people....he is young so intervention might help. I am left with an enormous amount of carry on luggage and a little stress looking at the clock and realizing the amount of time we don't have. Everyone finally gets through security, and we realize that Nonie is lost.....LOST...we can not find her. She decided not to take her cell phone with her..so we left Sarah behind, just in case mom shows up. The rest of us get racing to the gate since it was boarding. Mind you there was a lot of praying going on, dad thought he was going to have to stay behind if she was no where to be found. And wouldn't you know it, that little trooper found her way to the gate...I am so proud of her! Sarah got there in time too and we were headed to Dubai. (on a side note to my sister, Becca...I know I said I was going to call you from Seattle...but as you can see, there was no time..I love you:) The flight to Dubai was 14 hours or so. I am going to ask for some prayers for myself and you might find it kinda funny....please pray for my backside! I have been having problems sitting for long periods of time because my tailbone hurts terribly! Right now it is pretty bad...but I am coping. We got to Dubai all of us kind of punchy by now. We found our way through the beautiful Dubai airport and found our way to the bus counter to go get to our hotel. We let the gal know that 2 of our people didn't have hotel vouchers and she said it would be $115 dollars each to stay. My dad about swallowed his tongue, but we trusted that God was going to get us through this one too...he got us to the plane on time....He helped my mom find the right gate...He could do this too. We got to the hotel and it ended up that Mo and Todd were able to stay in the rooms with us. Hallaloo! We had our boarding passes for the next flight so it was going to be a breeze in the morning. I think our room was only able to sleep for 3 hours....we got to the airport on time, ate a little breakfast, and then went to go through security. None of our boarding passes worked, so we had to get new ones. Got new boarding passes, got through security and Sarah couldn't find her money pouch. It had her ID, all her money and her Visa card. She had left it on the chair that she had sat in while waiting for dad to get all the passes. A nice gentleman...ok, a stern gentleman led her back out to see if it was still there. A little girl was sitting in Sarah's seat and was on Sarah's money pouch! Yeah, God!!! We got to Entebbe, Uganda, very exhausted from lack of sleep and found out that 6 of our suitcases didn't make it....I am running out of battery, so long story short....yeah right!...pray that we get the bags. It had soccer tournament t-shirts. My personal bag, my dad's personal bag etc....I need to sign off. I am excited to see what God has in store for us tomorrow.  

Beth