Trip to the USA...Part 1 :)

Has it already been 12 days since I last updated? On one hand, it feels like it was just yesterday we were loading up the van for our trip, and on the other hand, it feels like we've been gone for a month! I think because we did about as much as we do in a month; that coupled with driving over 3,000 miles in 6 days. :)

We just praise the Lord for a wonderful trip; His hand of mercy and grace was so very evident and we are so thankful! I have soooo much I would love to share; I was hoping to update periodcally from up north, but the home where we were staying didn't have a good internet connection and we were so very busy, I spent the few free hours at home there just washing our laundry. :) Daniel encouraged me to pack light since we were only going to be there a few days, but I didn't plan very well when I packed only 1 dress shirt/dress pant for the boys seeing as we had a service every night. And how could I hope for them to keep their outfit clean when everyone kept feeding us everywhere we went! :)

Since I have so much to share, but soooo much work to do here at home (laundry, unpacking, sorting through the things we came home with, cleaning ect... while keeping everyone fed and regularly hugged :) ) as well as not wanting to make posts too long, I will share about our trip in 3 parts...Our trip north, our time up there, and our trip back home :)

We left around 5:30 am Thursday morning (Oct. 30); we prayed together for the Lord's hand of protection before we left knowing we had about 3,000 miles to drive in the weeks ahead, much of it on Mexico's Hwy 1. We are so amazed and grateful as the Lord did protect us and give us a safe journey. I think we saw 5 serious accidents on the highway here on our way up/down in addition to seeing countless animals...big ones (cows, horses, donkeys) in the middle of the road. And the Lord was so gracious as we had a couple of potentially big problems with our vehicle on the way home (I'll share about those later). So we all gathered around the breakfast table this morning spending some time praising the Lord for his goodness and thanking Him for watching over us.

That first day, the children did so very well. I was the one who struggled with my attitude as the curvy roads, hot Mexican sun, and my morning sickness coupled now with car sickness made me wonder how I would ever endure the drive. Daniel was so patient to listen to my groans and moans and to pray that I would feel better. While driving, I thought that I would never want to make that trip again (at least not when morning sick), but once we got to the conference and were so very blessed beyond and above what we ever thought (through the sweet fellowship, preaching from God's Word, love of our brothers/sisters in Christ ect...) I would do it all over again. It reminded me of being in labor to have a baby and you wonder how you will make it and then that beautiful baby is placed in your arms and you'd do it all over again for it is soooo worth it!

We did something we had never done before that first day...we traveled all the way to the border!! After 22 hours in the car, we cross into the USA around 3 am Friday morning and slept wonderfully in a hotel there in the San Diego area.

The next morning, I dropped Daniel off at the DMV as he needed to get his CA driver's license renewed since it had expired. We knew it would be a couple of hours at least as the line was out the door, so I drove the children down the road about a block to a nice park where they enjoyed running around and playing after spending so much time in the car.

Daniel got his license and we ate a quick lunch and began heading north once again. Since we woke up a bit late that day (due to not getting to bed until around 4 am) and then having to spend a couple of hours at the DMV, we didn't get on the road until around 2:30 pm and drove until around midnight. Again, we stopped to rest for the night and drove another 7 hours or so the next day (Saturday) finally pulling into our hometown area late that afternoon.

We were out of diapers (as I use disposable ones when we travel! :) ), and since there was a Wal-mart right off of the exit we had to take, we turned to go into the parking lot there. Daniel and I were just talking about how nobody even knew we were in town as we didn't have a USA cell phone and hadn't been able to call from the hotel either as the phone wasn't working. Just as we pulled in the parking lot, Daniel's brother Joel was pulling out!! He was on the phone with Daniel's uncle (Pastor Tom...the one who invited us to the conference) and they were talking about us wondering how we were doing and if/when we'd arrived! The Lord is so good and Joel got us all set up there at the mobile home (his empty home he's lent us when we are up north) and we unloaded, ate supper, showered, had family devotions and then the childen went right to sleep while Daniel worked on his message and I got the church clothes ironed/set out for the morning.

Little Eliseo enjoying his first swing ride at the park!

I walked around snuggling with my little man while I watched the children play.

He's growing sooo fast!!...He'll be 7 months old tomorrow (sniff, sniff)!!


The girls pull out a drawer from the dresser at the hotels and line it with blankets to make Eliseo a porta-crib :)

Getting ready to have devotions with Daddy our first morning in the USA

More fun at the park pictures

The children sooo enjoyed getting out to play and the weather was just beautiful!

We've about outgrown our 15 passenger van, so we are trying out a bus :)

Here's a pic I snapped the morning we left...driving up the peninsula in the dark

Some cows off the side of the road...we saw many of them right in the middle of the road too....you honk and honk and they take their sweet time to cross :)

Stopping to get our vehicle inspected at one of the military check points
The soldiers just love our children....the man standing next to Timothy offered Nehemiah one of his chips. When he held out the bag for Nehemiah to grab one, Nehemiah grabbed the entire bag! We said, "Oh no Nehemiah...not all of them!" but the soldier told him to share with his siblings. :) We are hoping if we go up north for Christmas that we can put together baskets with some homebaked goodies and gospel tracts/Bibles to hand out at the military checkpoints.

One of the accidents we came upon....the car is still on fire.

Thank you Lord for a safe trip north!