Our trip Part 1: Getting There

We arrived home safely on Monday, May 4th, and spent the first weeks getting our bearings and waiting on the phone company to repair our internet connection.  During this time it's been great to begin to process the trip and reflect on all that God did with the time there.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. The grace of God was evident throughout our journey.

April 21, 2015

We were up at 5 a.m. with our suburban already packed and drove to Atlanta.  We encountered a little rush hour traffic, but still made it by 9:15 for a 12 pm flight. 

We started off at the wrong terminal. International destination, but a domestic stop in D.C. meant we had to get over to the domestic terminal.  Fortunately we had a 2.5 hr wait.

We loved seeing the kids faces during takeoff. For most of them it was their first plane ride, and a great start to our adventure.

We had a 3 hr layover in D.C. where we ate dinner, and then boarded a 9 hour flight to Rome.  The kids were thrilled to have movie screens in front of them, but eventually we had to force them to try and get some sleep.  

We landed in Rome at 8am (2 am EST). Quite an experience for the kids. We caught a 50 minute bus to Roma Termini train station where we had a several hours to kill. At the station there are storage rooms where we were able to pay for our luggage to be kept so we wouldn't have to carry it all thru the streets. Unfortunately we forgot we weren't in America. The phrase "Can I help you?" means that there is a fee attached.

We got our bags locked away and quickly escaped the train station. It was a bit of overload for our tired kiddos. We did a bit of sight seeing, taking refuge in St. Maria's basilica where it was quiet and cool.

We had arranged to meet our good friend Tony Morra from Naples during our layover.  We hadn't seen him since 2009 when he interned at our church. He treated us to pizza and we were able to spend time getting caught up. We were pretty exhausted, but it was good to see a familiar face. He helped us figure out what platform our train would arrive at and he was off to catch his train back home. He took an hour train ride just to see us for such a short time, but it meant the world to us. 

We waited to see which platform our train would arrive at only to discover the underground  door to the platform was closed. So we ran with 7 kids and ALL our luggage in tow to the other side of the train station and just made it. It was a 4 hr train ride and we were all able to sleep on and off.  It was good to finally be able to relax. 

We arrived in Bari at 6:45 p.m. We could not find anyone who spoke English or any signs to direct us.  We knew we had to take a bus to the ferry but could not tell which one.  As we were trying to buy tickets the man behind the counter could only say "20" and was trying to communicate something more with hand signals. A young man who did speak English walked up out of nowhere and explained we needed bus "20 /" He then brought us to the bus stop, showed us what time the bus would be coming and then walked off. While we were waiting, another young man asked what bus we were waiting for and began keeping watch for us.  When it pulled into the stop, he called us over to it and then walked away.

Thankfully we had researched and knew we needed to go to the ticket booth separate from where the ferry docks.  On the bus, other Albanians were signaling to us where our stop was.  We walked to the ticket counter and one of the Albanians from the bus introduced himself and his father in English.

Inside we were told that the office was closed and our new Albanian friends explained that we would have to catch a bus and travel 2 km down the road to purchase ferry tickets. They helped us get to the alternate ticket booth, got us thru customs and made sure we got on the right van for our ferry. If we had not met them we would not have made our ferry in time. We know this was totally God's provision. Running from one spot to the next Aaron was telling the kids "This is what happens when we totally place ourselves in God's hands!" We are so thankful they got to witness all of this first hand.

We boarded the ferry about 9 pm., overpaid for a small dinner, and went straight to our berths, each equipped with bunks and full baths.  Boys with Aaron, girls with Jen. We showered, read some scripture, prayed and went to bed. 10 hrs later we arrived in Durres, Albania and met the Waggoner family, 42 hrs after leaving our home in Georgia.