I volunteered to be the blogger tonight to fill you in on some of our activities of the past few days. We all left Hillcrest at Tuesday afternoon 1:30 and drove to O'Hare in Chicago. We had plenty of time to check our 20 bags, make it through security, and board our plane. We got on our plane, and went out to the run-way, where the pilot let us know that due to previous thunderstorms, there was a line of 70-80 planes waiting to take off. He thought it might take 2 hours to take off, which we weren't really excited to hear. Part of the way through this wait, a really severe thunderstorm came to O'Hare. We rode out the storm in the airplane. It was really windy- we could see the rain going sideways outside the window. The pilot had to turn the plane to make sure we were facing into the wind- he told us it was 74 mph. We found out later that while we were sitting on the runway, O'Hare had shut the airport down and made everyone who was there go into the basement, which wasn't very comforting.
We managed to find three hotel rooms about 20 minutes away, and we finally got to our beds around 1:00 a.m. We were able to sleep in a little bit, and went to the airport the next day. Late the night before, we had managed to get switched to the late 7:05 flight, which would get into Miami at 11:00, which is really late for our 6:45 flight the next morning. We got to the airport around 11:20 a.m., and talked to a ticket agent who was amazingly helpful and cheerful, despite saying that this was the worst delays that she had seen in 21 years. We were so thankful for her- an answer to prayer! She was able to reschedule 5 of us on the 3:10 flight and 4:10 flight. All of us were in Miami with hotel rooms by 9:30, which was also great! We still didn't get a lot of sleep (some of us more than others), but we were all out of our rooms and in the lobby by 5:00 a.m., ready to go through security. Security went very well- we got through very quickly, and went to our gate with 20 minutes before we were supposed to board (only 24 hours late...)
I think we were in the air right around the right time, and got to Haiti nice and early! The airplane had run out of immigration forms, so we had to fill out the papers in a hurry in the line, get in immigration line, go through immigration, find our 20 suitcases, go through customs, and then go through the pathway to the drivers from GLA who were waiting for us. The airport went incredibly smoothly- thank you so much for your prayers! There were absolutely no problems. Molly and Joyce were there to welcome Abby and Isaac back to Haiti for their first time in 7 years (and the rest of the team :) ), and Brandon brought the big truck for all of us and all of our luggage to make it back. We got to the GLA guesthouse, where we will be staying for the next 7 nights. We sorted through our 20 suitcases to organize what items needed to go to which houses and loaded them back up to deliver them, and then had lunch and a little bit of a chance to rest. We took our luggage down to the main house to put away those donations while Pastor Brandon led the Bible study for the nannies, and we had a chance to tour the nurseries and see some of the babies.
When Pastor Brandon was ready to go, we headed back to the guesthouse, and then went to the Toddler House and got to meet some of the kids there. Some of the kids there remembered some of us from last year, and they are very, very excited for the VBS next week (we are too!) We had a very fun time with them this afternoon.
We had a yummy supper at the guesthouse with the team and the Brandon family, and then had our team meeting while enjoying the beautiful sunset. We are currently chilling on the balcony while some of us shower (yes!) We are anticipating a day with some painting and more sorting tomorrow, but we will also remain flexible and willing to do whatever they need us to do! We'll try to post again tomorrow evening, as long as our internet works well :)
Thanks for the prayer- we appreciate them, we've felt them, and please keep them coming!
Blessings,
Kristin for the team
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