Romanian Summary – Long Travel

The first notes of our trip . . .

It took weeks (well maybe just one) to prepare to pack.  The first step was to pull all of the suitcases out making sure all six of us had one that would work and roll.  Hooray – we didn’t have to go suitcase shopping! 

The next step was to determine if there were other needs – this was the scary part.  The $$$ signs began adding up.  I’m sure that everyone didn’t have TWELVE pair of underwear.  The tears started to well up in my eyes especially when I was told that we needed at least $100 EACH for travel expenses.  How and where would this money come from?  This was on a Sunday night.  My faith was oh so small.
The very next Monday, an unexpected check came in the mail for more than enough to cover those needs and cover the income I would miss out on by not nannying the days we were away.  GOD IS SO GOOD!  He truly took care of every single need.  SO – joyfully, we went underwear shopping.  We even bought blue jeans (two pair each) for the boys.  We had to pack clothes for hot and cold days.  We also had cash in our pockets for the traveling expenses.
Before we knew it, traveling day was here!  All stacks of clothes had to be rolled and packed in our bags.  We left home at 3:30 p.m. to eat a leisurely early dinner at Chick-Fil-A, of course!  Well, it was not as leisurely as we had hoped so we gobbled down our meals and headed to the church knowing that we could not be late!  We arrived at FBCW ON TIME at 5:00 p.m. for our airport departure.

We didn’t have any time to spare at the airport.  By the time we checked in all of our bags and made it to the gate our seats were being called.  Little did we know how much travel was ahead.

The plane was very big.  I’ve never seen a first class section like this one.  Every passenger had their own cubical!  I sat in the center section on the aisle.  This wasn’t so bad because of the new head rests.  (You can tell that I don’t travel that often J).  I took Advil P.M. and was out before dinner was served. Fortunately, I was able to sleep the entire flight unlike the rest of the team.  Oops, maybe I should have shared.
We landed in London for a short lay-over.  We didn’t realize how important it would be to eat well  while there.  I just had a granola bar I had packed and a Starbuck’s Chai tea – hooray.  I was sad that we didn’t encourage our leader to let us stay overnight there.  Actually, that thought never crossed my mind until I was IN London, England with no time to appreciate it.  Of course, our “mission” was Romania, but it would have been nice to be doubly productive with the travel J . . . maybe next time.

The next flight wasn’t as long.  I slept for a short while and then felt rested.  We landed in Budapest, Hungary which we are told is another very beautiful city.  We did not have time to take in those sights either.  We loaded everything onto a bus and trailer and headed to Oradea, Romania – the home of the orphans.  The ride was long, and it was dark.  Fortunately, I kept my airplane sandwich because this was the only food offered.  It tasted better than expected, but then any food would have at that point. 

It was 1:00 a.m. Romanian time when we arrive at our place of rest.  In the dark it seemed quaint and was clean.  It was now 5:30 p.m. Atlanta time.  We had traveled a full 24 hours.  We visited a little while in the room with our team before lights out.   I took another Advil P.M. which is not my norm, but allowed me to sleep well.  The breakfast bell woke us at 8:00 a.m. – time to start the day!  Sleep sounded better than food so I rolled over and thanked God for a day of rest.             We were here, and soon we would begin our mission.