Caleb & Della: 11/1/14: Day 243: Travels

We woke up at 4:00 to finish our packing. Mom woke up and cooked a huge breakfast with all the leftovers. Then Fernando, Samuel, and Osvaldo arrived and helped us load our bags. We managed to leave the house pretty close to on time and I said my final goodbye to Fernand. Samuel gave me a gift that had Proverbs 18:24 wood-burned on the back. Then we left and Samuel drove our car while Osvaldo drove a van. I rode in the van with mom, Christina, and Dan and made good time for the getting to the airport. Everything seemed a blur, today and yesterday. We pulled up to the unloading area and got our luggage out but there wasn’t any time to waste because of where they were parked. We got a few last photos in and then they were gone. We had so many bags that we had to get two carts to get them all to the check-in. Everything went smoothly and no one had anything confiscated as we went through security. Thankfully, Della is feeling a good bit better today; I guess she just needed a day to recuperate from the operation she had Thursday. She was able to hold Charlotte while I carried all the carry-on bags throughout the day of travels. I read most of The Great Divorce while I was on the plane and it turned out to be a different book than I thought it would be. After our first flight I witnessed a small group of people that were in great distress for having missed their flight. I was standing in line to check the ticket situation for Charlotte and they were in the same line. They asked if they could cut in front of me and I asked if I could pray for them. Then after our last flight, I noticed the pilot was letting some kids sit in the cockpit now that the plane was landed. We went down to the baggage claim and looked all over for dad because he said that he would be there. Then I realized that he was probably in another area and sure enough there he was, waiting where he thought we would be. It was great to hug dad for the first time in eight months. I showed him where everyone else was and got some pictures of him holding his first granddaughter for the first time. Then we pulled the bags off the line while dad went to get the van. Sure enough, all our bags except for one made it. Apparently it was left in Houston and they said they would deliver it to the house tomorrow. The ride home from Birmingham was long and Charlotte cried most of the way because she was hungry. It was 40 degrees Fahrenheit here which is a good bit colder than we were used to. We arrived at mom and dad’s house around midnight and tried to sleep but Charlotte had a difficult time. I guess she is just as overwhelmed as we are.