We're in Africa

After last minute packing and a nice farewell gathering on Saturday morning, October 29, we headed to the airport to leave for Africa! Leaving is so hard, saying good-byes to our friends and families, but going is so sweet, as God has put the desire in our hearts to be in West Africa. Les and Lynn drove us to the airport and earned bonus points for waiting with us at the check-in counter for nearly 2 hours!
The check-in was slow but pleasant, and everything went smoothly. Our case was a challenge for the people at the desk as none of them had ever processed pre-paid vouchers for excess baggage (the mission paid in advance for our extra bags), nor had any of them ever checked an animal internationally. Claire cost much less than I had feared to put her on the plane, and the excess baggage cost less than the mission board had anticipated so we got a credit voucher back (we don't get to keep it). When we started weighing the bags, the desk agent told me that the weight limit had changed the previous week from 70 pounds to 50 pounds, which meant that all of our bags were over weight. It was going to cost us $25 per bag ( x 10 = $250)! At our expense! I asked for mercy, and she said I'd have to talk to her manager. I did, of course, and she reluctantly agreed to waive the penalty! After she left, the desk agent next to mine leaned over to my desk agent and said "Just tag'em without weighing them". So she did, so we didn't even have to fill out the paperwork for the waiver. Praise God!
Our first layover was in Atlanta. We did not get to visit Claire there, for security reasons. But God sent helpful Delta employees our way to assure that they would check on and take care of her during our 5 hour layover. Also, I ran into Nick Garland waiting to board a plane back home. What a blessing from God! Chase slept some of the flight to Atlanta.
We all slept a little, but not much on the Flight from Atlanta to Paris. Too much excitement! The flight attendants showed Chase special attention, teaching him some French words. He could say 'Hello', 'How are you?', 'I'm fine.', 'Goodbye', and 'Thank you' by the time we arrived in Paris.
In Paris, we had to claim Claire to clear her through French customs. We have prayed for this alot in the past months, and God was faithful. We had all our paperwork ready, and Claire had all the shots required. They brought her to us after a long wait, then we prayed as we walked to the customs desk. And the customs officials waived us through without even looking at Claire or her paperwork! I couldn't believe it! I had asked God to make it easy, but I never imagined He would make it THAT easy! Praise God! We walked and played with Claire for about 2 hours, then we had to check her back in and head to our departure gate. The re-check went very easily, and before we knew it, we were leaving Paris for Dakar!
We were all exhausted by this time, and we all slept on the flight to Dakar. Chase slept almost the entire 6 hour flight.
When the doors of the plane were opened, Africa flooded in to us! We were so excited to have finally arrived back in Africa! All of our luggage arrived in good order, except the umbrella stroller which I filed a claim for. Then we exited the airport through customs without a problem. No one even asked for a bribe! Things have really changed here in the past four years!
We met up with our friends outside the airport and headed to the guesthouse for a long hard night's sleep. Chase slept for 12 hours straight!!!
Even after all of this, my faith in God was still lacking. As we laid down to sleep, I told Crystal that I doubted we would ever see the umbrella stoller again. She said 'Well, God has worked other miracles for us, let's pray about it.' We did, and thanked Him for the many other ways He had worked for us on the flight. And would you know, the stoller arrived Monday night. God is so good!