Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Landing...

Well...we have officially landed in the UK, but it feels like we are still landing and will be for a while.  If you follow Michael and I on Facebook you might have seen we have had quite the interesting start.  Since I am up before the crack of dawn and am tired of looking at the list of all the things that need to get done, I am gonna try and blog to update everyone on what is has looked like for us so far here.

Let's start with take off shall we???

On Tuesday (meaning a whole week ago!) we headed to the airport bright and early at about 6 a.m.  Evie complains on the way there of her tummy hurting :(  We get through checking our bags and security without too much trouble, which was good.  Then as we are waiting to load the plane for our first of 3 flights for the day, Evie poops and let's just say it isn't firm :(  (OH...and if you don't like to read stories of poop and puke..stop reading now...sorry--this is just honestly how things have gone for us and the story will include both things plenty unfortunately).  Continuing on...

Evie doesn't seem too upset, but a little uncomfortable.  The first flight goes alright for the most part.  Then we get off the plane in Chicago and Evie melts.  She is miserable and hurting and unconsolable really.  We scramble to tend to her and try to find some food for lunch.  At this point I wonder if we are going to either A). not be able to continue on with the travel or B). have a miserable baby for the remainder of the flights which I am sure everyone will love who are also on the plane.  Before loading she finally calms down a little, but complaining of her tummy hurting.  We load the plane and guess who poops?  Yep...Michael took her to the bathroom on the plane and somehow managed to clean her up and get seated.  As we are getting ready for takeoff, she poops again...and this one I believe almost everyone sitting around us could not only smell, but hear as well as it happened.  I took her this time to the bathroom and quickly tended to that clean up before we hit the run way.  After that Evie fell fast asleep for the entirety of that flight which was nice.  She woke up right at landing and you will never guess it...she poops again.  I am just thankful that it isn't running out into her clothes, meaning having to deal with poopy clothes while traveling...that part at least comes later in the story.... :(

In the next airport we find our terminal and get a little snack (which Evie won't really eat...).  The final flight is somewhat smooth other than both girls only sleeping about an hour max.  Michael and I didn't get any sleep and Emma Rose (who praise the Lord is traveling with us and helping with SK all along the way).  We land in Manchester around 7:30 a.m. and head to get our luggage.  We are all pooped at this point and still have to manage getting our luggage.  Oh, and we get our stroller at the gate and somehow they managed to break the bar off part of the stroller, which irritates me, but it still functions fine...gotta still call the airline about that...

I should have taken a picture of us trying to figure out how to get all of our carry ons, 10 pieces of luggage and 2 kids and a stroller out to meet our friends that were picking us up.  It would have made a good picture, but I was too tired to think about that...

We finally get loaded in the 2 cars that we were picked up in (which...let me tell you.  It was a tight tight fit).  We headed straight to the cafe to get food and see everyone.  It was great to be greeted with hugs and cheers as we got out of the car.  It refreshed my heart after a long tiring day of travel.  After eating, we headed to our new home to check out it and get some rest.

Our church family here did such a great job of having beds set up for us and things in the kitchen so we could at least have somewhere to sleep and get by in the kitchen till we were able to make it to the store to get things and for our shipment to arrive.  All of us took a good little nap (trying not to let it be too long so we could work on getting over jet lag) then headed over to the Donahoo's for dinner and everyone in the church came to hang out at our house after that.

Can I just say what a blessing it is to have families here that have loved on us so well so far.  Truly.

The next day we were able to leave our girls with Emma Rose to play around the house while we went to Ikea to begin setting up our house with dishes and furnishings and such.

One thing I have had to learn to be ok with is the amount of time it is taking and is going to take to get our house feeling like home.  We still haven't heard anything about our shipment and as far as I know it is still at the port in SC...  that's a big bummer.  We are limited on what we can fit in a small car when we buy anything at the store and we are relying on friends here to cart us around to stores to get things.  Michael is going to look for a car today for us, so hopefully that will make it easier to get out to find things for our home to begin making it feel homey.  It is hard though, being 33 weeks pregnant and wanting to next and feel settled here before baby arrives and only be able to do so much in a day.

We have a couch and chairs as of Sunday, so that is nice :)  I plan to try and take pics around the house today and post those, even though the rooms are still quite bare with nothing on the walls.

As far as the kids go...Evie didn't really eat for about 4 days and ended up throwing up 3-4 times then SK got sick.  SK only threw up one time and has had a bit of an upset tummy on and off since then.  I won't go into all the details of that since I am sure you wouldn't mind being spared that part, but I will say that I never want to deal with that much puke and diarrhea again.  We have changed sheets and pj's in the middle of the night countless times.  OH...and did I mention that our washing machine doesn't work and we are waiting for a new one to come in that we have had to order???  Thankfully, the church here has more than taken are of us and are taking our nasty stinky clothes, sheets, towels and such and washing them for us.  That has been such a help.

It was great to get to worship on Sunday with our new church, though the kids were still not 100% and still aren't really.  Evie seems close to being back to herself, but SK is still recovering.

Pray they continue to heal and get back to themselves soon.  And protections for Michael, I and Emma Rose to not get it or anything else for that matter.

Also I was able to walk over to the GP "Surgury", which back in the states we would call the doc's office on Friday and turn in my paperwork to get registered, then fill out paperwork for the midwives group.  They were going to fax that paperwork to the midwives and I am supposed to hear back from them to get an appointment set up this week.

Pray for Michael as he goes to look for a car today.  Pray the Lord will provide a reliable car that is within our budget (or below would be cool :).

Pray that we would continue to settle in well and that our house would soon begin to feel like a home.  And in the in between we would be content with how it is and not be overwhelmed with so much to do.

Pray too for SK and getting her registered for school.  I am just realizing that I have missed a cut off date for registration for the fall and will now be considering a "late" register.  Pray that somehow the Lord works out those details for her to get into the school that is closest to us.

We also have an appointment today to get set up with a bank here.  Pray that goes smooth and we can get a bank account without hassle.

Praise the Lord with us that he has taken care of us thus far.  We have so many things we can be thankful for even in the midst of such craziness.  I have to step away from the lists and stresses and sickness to look at how kind the Lord has been to our family and provided for us.

We are excited too how the Lord continues to provide for our financial needs as well.  Since arriving, we have had another church join our support team, putting us at about 93% fully funded.  We are beyond thankful for that and trusting the Lord will bring in the rest of our needs in his timing.  You can pray and praise the Lord with us on that too.

Ok...that's enough for today.  I will attempt to take a moment today to get the camera out and take some pics of our new home (even if there is nothing hanging on the walls...