We Made It!

Well guys, we made it!  Our travel day went almost flawlessly, with only a few hitches a long the way.  There had to be a some, right?  Thank you all for your prayers.  We could feel God’s presence and peace throughout all the stressful moments as well as the calm ones.

Some of the memories of Monday include:

·      Getting to the airport at 4 a.m. with all our bags only to find out that we had to pay $150/each to change our tickets.  They said we had to have a return ticket within 90 days or we couldn’t board the plane, due to Costa Rica's visa restrictions.  This obviously came as a HUGE surprise to us because why would we have been able to book the ticket for more than 90 days in the first place?  The guy was a total stickler, and would not budge on the “rule” even though we showed him our certified documents that we had started the process of our residency in CR… Needless to say, it was a nerve-racking start to the morning and I was just praying that he wouldn’t charge us for each of our overweight bags.  The verse, If God is for us, who can be against us? kept coming to mind while he was fussing over our tickets, and when it came time to weigh our bags, he didn’t blink an eye even though each one was 1-7 lbs too heavy.  Thank God.  We paid the $450 and were on our way...

Kate on our mountain of bags at PDX.

·      Joe going through security with Fernando clinging to him and having the detector go off – the guy goes, “We’ll have to pat down both of you.”  Joe looks at the guy like, “You’ve GOT to be kidding,” and he manages to talk him out of it and we put Fern back into his case… one of the funnier moments.

·      Kate sleeping on the plane – a first for her napping during the day on a plane for more than a half hour.  She actually slept on both flights for 1.5-2 hours.  A HUGE blessing.

·      Fernando meowing deeply upon take-off, but other than that, behaving like quite a nice cat the entire day.  Our absorbent pads inside his case soaked up all his pee.

Fernando in the family bathroom in ATL.  He had zero interest in our handmade litter box.

·      Having the Costa Rican customs guy not believe us when we said our tv was 4 years old – he made us take it out of the soaked original box to check (it had been raining hard in each place we flew in/out of).  It was another little hitch at the end of a long day, but again, it all worked out and he let us through.

·      Having all our flights on time, getting two tiny cat naps, Fernando getting through customs in San Jose without any problem, and safely arriving at Steve and Georgiana’s that night.  God is good.

Kate pushing a cart at the San Jose airport.

And the past couple days… We are still at Steven and Georgiana’s actually because getting beds took a little longer than we thought.  But we’ve had two productive days of shopping and buying household goods.  We bought a sofa, loveseat, and a cozy bed today, which are our major purchases, and they will be delivered in the next couple of hours.  We will get moved in tomorrow and spend our first night in our house!  We are so thankful to finally be here.  Here are a few more photos of the last three days…

Kate eyeing some toys at Pricesmart, Costa Rica's version of Costco.

Kate checking out this over-sized chair at La Artistica, where we bought our sofa and bed.

Bethany Thomas, Steve and Georgiana's daughter, and me trying out a bed together.  It was our favorite.

Bethany and Kate in one of those obnoxiously big car grocery carts at Walmart.  Bethany is 12 and was too big for it so she had to hang her leg out.  This was Kate's debut drive and I'm not sure if we'll ever be able to go back to a normal cart.

Luke Thomas and Kate having a dance party!  Kate is really enjoying playing and dancing with Lukey!

 

We are so thankful to be able to stay at the Thomas home once again (we stayed here last October on our initial scouting trip and again this August when looking for a house).  We couldn't do this without them.  Thanks again to all of you for your support and prayers!