45 Hour Marathon!!!

Imagine, if you can, that it's 4:15am, Wednesday the 26th of September. We are finally crawling out of bed after a couple of hours of sleep. Today is the day that we leave for Brazil! Besides being exhausted from packing and last minute preparations, we are nervous. We have a marathon ahead of us; two flights, airport reunions in both Toronto and Sao Paulo and after all that, two bus rides, one through the night! Will we make it? Will we be able to get away without paying for excess baggage? Will Muki and Hannah cough through the night, or will they feel ok? So many different thoughts and emotions are going through our 5 minds. After our check-in in Winnipeg, we met with friends and family for a last Tim's before we left the North.First stop... Pearson International in Toronto. What a fabulous day with friends! 7 of our friends from LDP came out to see us for a party at Pearson! We visited, ordered pizza, visited, laughed, visited, played games and then visited some more. What a rejuvenating way to spend a day in the airport. Thank you crazy LDPers for the effort you all made to see us. Those that couldn't come, we'll see you soon in BRAZIL, right?!?
Second stop...Guarulhos Airport in Sao Paulo. By this time, the wear and tear on our family was getting obvious. The kids rested as Scott and I met with Jim and Marilou Nightengale, Canadian missionary friends of ours planting a camp in Sao Paulo. Another encouraging meeting. God is doing awesome things in Brazil!
Can you see anyone in this picture? We had eighteen large bags between the 7 of us, plus carry ons, which made for an interesting spectacle in the airport. It was such a large pile, that we stationed ourselves around it for protection purposes and Muki fell asleep during his post!
Thought you might enjoy an aerial view of "The Pile".
As you can see on our faces, we left Guarulhos ready to push on to the last phase of our journey. We loaded all our baggage onto a shuttle bus, and we are convinced the driver had never seen that many bags before in his life. We arrived at the Tiete Bus Station and moved most of our luggage by hand across the bus station (which is NOT small) until Scott found a two-wheel cart to finish off the task. What a relief! We waited anxiously, hoping the driver of the bus wouldn't notice that we had way too many over sized bags and decide to charge us extra. We were thrilled when he loaded it up and didn't say a word. God is sooooo good to us.

All that to say.......we made it! We have arrived!!! It is wonderful to be back. It is thrilling to have this huge challenge ahead of us. We are so grateful for the house we have rented. We have already come face to face with the differences in our two cultures. Kids running in, around and through our house without asking permission. We have once again become a spectacle in our neighborhood. In spite of the adjustments, we all feel at home!

Thanks for your prayers and support. We will keep you posted. Please take a look at our Quest website at www.questbr.com