Day 1: We depart Dallas at 2:30 PM on Friday March9th. The girls sitting on either side of me both excited and nervous for their first plane ride. As we start to taxi my hands begin to turn purple lol as they are both holding on so tight! The plane accelerates and then takes off and both girls giggle so loudly that the people in the row next to us start laughing and enjoying warching them. The flight was great and a good test for their next leg of the journey because Ryan and I knew the next day would be interesting. The girls did great and we arrived at the hotel in LA at 6:00 and went to find food. With full tummies and dreams of the next day we ended the night with prayers of thanks and more prayers for the next day.
Day 2: Saturday, May 10th. We all woke up early with excitement and headed to the airport after a quick breakfast at the hotel. After getting checked in, grabbing our pillows from our bags and dropping off the checked luggage, we headed for the gate. I couldn‘t wait to see the girls faces on this plane. Their jaws dropped when they saw the plane - “Mommy that‘s huge!”. Hehe!!! We get to our seats and they are giggling and showing each other the seats, the pillow, blanket and headphones that come with it and their very own TV screen in front of them! Now the fun begins...we take off and the 13 hour flight starts. Kendal looks at the picture in her screen of the flight path and says, “Wow Mommy that’s a long way! How long will that take?”. I tell her it‘s 13 hours and she just stares at me. LOL. Then we show the girls the TV and they start to play games and watch movies and are all set. We get three meals and a snack and drinks throughout the flight. The girls play, sleep, eat and find the airplane bathroom to be fun so it’s all good.
Day 3: Longest day ever.... we arrive in Shanghai, China at 5:30 on Sunday March 11th but never really had a night because we followed the sun, so I know this next part will be challenging as the girls are already showing signs of exhaustion. We did get to access the Priority Lounge, thank you credit cards, and there was free food, snacks and yes wine for Mommy cause let’s face it this is why God created it! We headed to our gate at 8:00 to shuttle on bus to the next plane and boarded for the final leg of our flight. The plane took off and while the girls still giggled we could tell they were getting tired. They still played and had fun and luckily this was only about a five hour flight. When we landed in Bangkok at 12:05 AM local time Monday March 13th Kendal asked when we would be at the hotel. I explained we had to get our bags, go through customs and immigration and then get a taxi oh the tears started! She stomped her foot and said “I’m not doing that I am leaving!”. Hehe. I would have laughed had I not been tired too. Kaelyn just went with it but in traditional younger sister style began finding ways to push Kendal’s buttons. Cause let‘s face it this isn’t a 1950 classic film with smiles all around this is real life people and we have all been awake too long for any sane family. 😀😀😀😀😀. We get through customs and head for our bags and our friend from Bangkok Neale Bryan texts Ryan and surprises us and says he’s at the airport. Let me tell you, when you land in a foreign country in the middle of the night and get a surprise like that you just want to cry tears of joy! Neale took us to our hotel and was truly amazing. We will be spending more time with him and his family soon. Anyway, we finally get there and settled and it’s 3:30 AM. So we all crash with more prayers of thanks and excitement for what’s to come! Check back in there will be more in the coming days!!!!
Finally getting over jetlag in Laos. We got a good night of sleep and feel much more on schedule today. We are excited to continue to learn what God is doing in Laos. We hope to have some more pictures and video soon.