going? continued....

well.  We have been traveling from our home to Florida for 36 hours now...and have not yet arrived.  We are in Turks and Caicos.  What a 36 hours it has been.

MFI promised to brave the Haiti instability and come at 11 on Saturday.  We are at the door to leave at 7 am to leave plenty of time to have problems in town.  Fog in Fort Pierce.  2 hour delay for the flight.  We wait.  More delay.  Wait some more.  Leave for the airport at noon...not too bad in town, get to the airport at 1:30.  Get checked in, wait wait wait...

MFI had brought in two planes, one was broken, but not ours.  Ours makes a trip pick up other passengers and comes back to get us....We board, ready for take-off at 5 pm.....plane breaks on the runway.  Getting dark, two broken planes, NO lights at the Cap Haitian airport to fix either.  Not going anywhere Saturday.  (Please picture all of this with a two year old.)

Call Vilmer, he picks us up, and neither of us can stomach another 90 minutes on terrible roads in the dark and rain with an exhausted Lily, and pregnant Stacey and then another 90 minutes (IF there is peace) at 6 am the next morning.  So, he takes us to a hotel 10 minutes away, we eat some spaghetti and all go to bed.

7:30 this morning, we head back to the airport, sit until 9:30 while they fix the plane.  Fixed, but part of the passengers were MIA.  Wait for them until 10:30.  Take off, fly 45 minutes to Turks and Caicos for fuel.

De-board.  Get fuel.  Wait an hour for clearance.  Board plane, break down on the runway.

De-board.  Plane cannot be fixed.  Try to get a flight from Turks and Caicos to Miami or Fort Lauderdale or, well, ANYWHERE.  Cheapest flights, like $700 a person.

Brings us to NOW.

We are waiting in a tiled room with 10 chairs and 25 other passengers (air conditioned...yay) for the second MFI plane, now fixed in Cap-Haitien, to come here and get us.  Expected arrival time, 4:30 pm.  Expected departure IF nothing is broken, 5 pm.  Fly 2 hours to the Bahamas....fuel again.  Fly to West Palm Beach...predicted arrival time: between 11 and midnight.  Flight to Denver, now scheduled for Monday afternoon.

(Again, please picture all of this with a two-year old.)

I am SO thankful that Lisa's wedding is still one week from today, or I would be fighting an ulcer :)

PRAISES:  We are safe.
Lily has been SO good all things considered, and has only neared melt-down twice from sheer exhaustion.
We are no longer in Haiti, which means "manifestations" and riots are no longer a concern for keeping us away from Denver.
Someone took us out of this little room to a little cafe around 2 for lunch, and EATING made all the difference (and they had dill pickles!).
My dad, praise the Lord, has been playing travel agent for the last two days and arranging and changing flights, hotels, etc. (I am trying NOT to think about what all this is costing!)
I haven't been feeling nauseated at all!
We are with a great group of people.
The Lord has helped us both to make the best of each moment  and remain (except for a few short moments) upbeat, joyful and Matt in particular, has just been radiating Jesus to our group and those around us, helping out in lots of ways.  Final praise....EVEN if things continue at this rate...SURELY we will be to Denver by the rehearsal dinner Saturday.

Thanks for all your prayers.  We will update you if we get to America :)