To The Skies!

April 4, 2010

The last four days either solidified or shattered our relationship with the friends whose guest house we've been borrowing. Despite living in their backyard for the last eight months, we saw them more in the 72 hours preceeding our departure than in the rest of it combined. Without their help, and the help of so many others, we could not have left on time. Clearing out a life takes more work than I had budgeted, so thank you, beloved friends!

Saturday, I took the kids to the Children's Museum one last time before heading to the airport. The emotional dimension of these last weeks is hard to describe; add that to getting three hours of sleep in the last two nights and you understand why I started crying when we walked down the ramp and through the lobby one last time before leaving. Fortunately, I got it under control before security stopped us. This place has been a blessing to us in so many ways; as a home for playdates, a weekly destination, special 'firsts' like stage musicals. I hope there are places in Africa where their faces will reflect joy and awe like they do when riding the carousel at the museum. One more time in the pretend ice cream shoppe, one more turn at the ball machine in Scienceworks, one more walk through the hall of mirrors and Barbie. Then it was time to go home to pick up Len and get to the airport.

There were nine adults at the airport to help us and we needed every hand. Unloading the bags, playing with the kids, watching the cars, helping with the desk and checking in took quite a bit of time and we were thankful for the help. It was like God parted the sea for us the entire way: as we approached the desk and security checkpoint, there were no lines. When we walked out, there were long lines. And this was not due to our sluggishness! Ruby kept us moving through the security area; she has the entire process down to an art. Ruby is the person you want to be behind in the security line. She knows what to do, and she will set you straight if you aren't moving fast enough or forget to put something in a bin.

Harry and Izzy's is a restaurant just past the checkpoint at the Indianapolis Airport; we had time to stop there for a good meal and wine before heading to the gate. St. Elmo's shrimp cocktail was a nice way to say goodbye to Indy.

The trip really couldn't have gone better. We flew Indy to Detroit to Amsterdam to Dar, and the transatlantic and longer Amsterdam to Dar flights even had enough empty seats to spread out and rest a little. The kids love to fly and were champs. One rough point for me was on the approach to Amsterdam when the steward said, 'For those of you returning to the United States...' and I realized we weren't, at least not for a while. But we had agreed to not get emotional in front of the kids, and our unplanned strategy of not sleeping was really working for us on that front; once you deaden enough brain cells from sleep deprivation, it is easy to move your family to the other side of the world without thinking too much about it. Or maybe we just can't handle thinking about it at this point.

A shout -out here to KLM Dutch Royal Airlines...they do a wonderful job with children, special meals and overall service. Everytime I thought about asking for something, the steward was there holding it before I said anything. Now that I think about it, it was almost creepy how intuitive they were. But it made for a very nice flight.

We landed in Dar a few minutes ahead of schedule and barely broke stride through customs. I think they were all tired. We made it out of the airport so quickly that our ride was not there yet! Len pulled out his US cell phone to call him and as he turned it on, the battery died. So there were a few anxious moments of sitting on the curb with our bags, painfully foreign. Thankfully, it was literally only seconds until we heard our friend's banter on his phone as he got out of his car - he had arrived just on time! Ruby and Henry fell asleep on me in the back seat of his truck as we drove to their house for the night. It was just before midnight when we settled into bed, eager to meet our new home in the morning.

Thanks for all the Birthday wishes for sweet Ruby, who spent her entire fifth birthday on airplanes and in airports. Fortunately, she doesn't want to turn five yet, so we told her to let us know when she's ready and we will celebrate then. And if you see her, don't bring it up. Mentioning her birthday has brought anxious shouts of, "I don't WANT to be FIVE! I want to stay FOUR until I'm FOURTEEN!"

Very well, child.