Different Plans

At the moment I'm writing this, we have been traveling for 29 hours. And we're not home yet.

Our day yesterday started out so pleasant and normal...a view of the Tetons out the airplane window to send us on our way home.

We had a brief layover where we got our first Starbucks Christmas (side note...just found out that these are ELECTION cups!! Who knew??!!!) and Dave talked to Caleb.

And then we were on to Chicago where we had another layover. Before we knew it, we were on our way across the ocean (having a MOST amazing conversation!) and the flight was long, but uneventful.

Once we landed in Frankfurt for yet another layover, I texted my friend Amy in Bratislava to let her know that we were on schedule to arrive into Vienna, and to pass on that news to the person bringing us our car from her house.

She wrote back a message saying, "Great" and soon we were in line for our last flight of this trip home.

But when I sat down on the plane, I saw that another message had come in from her. The gist of the message? Something is wrong with Dave's car...very wrong. Mark, her husband, had taken it to get a car wash before one of our other JV teammates was to drive it over to us at the Vienna airport. But on the way, it stopped working and is now sitting alongside a road in their part of town.

Caleb and Haley had borrowed Dave's car to go on their survey trip down to Macedonia and Bulgaria, and had encountered some trouble with it on their way back. However, they made it safely to Haley's parents (Mark and Amy) and left the car there before flying back to the US. The plan was to pick it up after our flight in, and then for us to continue on home to Czech.

But instead?

We had to take a train from the Vienna airport to the main train station, then wait three hours for the next one to Ostrava.

Of course this would be the time when we have extra bags! We're carting back about 100 pounds of my books to have on hand here. So combine that with the rest of our things after a month's travels, and we're loaded heavy.

While I sat guarding everything, Dave went to scout out a place for us to hang out in the station since we're barely able to get around with those bags.

After three hours of trying to stay awake, we finally got on a three hour direct train to Ostrava where we'll get off and take a taxi home.

By the time we lay our heads down on our pillows tonight, it will have been at least 33 hours, if not more, of travels to get home.

Thankfully we're both holding up well emotionally and spiritually. And yes, we've thanked the Lord for this trial! Our physical bodies are a bit on the weary end, but we haven't given in to sleep yet and plan to stay awake the rest of this trip so that we'll sleep tonight.

At least that's the plan!