WELCOME TO ENGLAND

Well, we made it!!! I can blog, but I can’t post this to the internet until we go to the Library or something like that, maybe tomorrow. We will see. I would like to email everyone and let them know that we arrived safe and sound and extremely exhausted! The phone calls are a little expensive! It’s like a $1.50 per minute! YIKES! Right? So I called my Mom & my friend Jenny and said “pass the word, here’s the number, love you, bye!” haha

So anyway – our flight! Man, was it ever long. I used to want David to take me on vacation to St. Petersburg Russia…but that’s even further and I’m not sure I want to be on a plane that long! You would think it wouldn’t be so bad, because you could sleep or read, but the trick is getting comfortable enough. I was so tired I couldn’t read, but so uncomfortable that I couldn’t sleep. So I would doze for a like 15 minutes here and there and then get re-situated all over.

The kids stayed awake pretty much the entire flight! They thought it was awesome in the airports watching the planes take off, the guys loading the planes and a lot more stuff. You should see some of the pictures they took, they kidnapped my camera! Gotta love them. They really loved looking out the window on our own plane, seeing the clouds, the miniature cars and buildings below us, and the sunrise over Dublin (amazing, I might add). They were a little disappointed that we didn’t get to see the ocean – me too, I think we were too high up, plus it was really dark! As soon as we have a home and internet I will post some of them for you to see.

They were able to watch movies during the flight. I think Ashlynn watched Kung Fu Panda at least 3 times and they had Speed Racer too! So both kids were in heaven. Brier I think jabbering David’s ear off most the way – there were times I’d look back and Brier would be talking away and David would be sleeping! It was kinda comical.

I watched 2 movies as well…and I know that the women of M2M were praying for us because the 2 movies I watched were “Sex in the City” a movie that a group of us went to the theater to see together! And “Maid of Honor” the last movie I went to see with Jenny! So here I was on a flight to England, remembering the good times – even if I couldn’t get comfortable.

Ashlynn did finally fall asleep about the last hour of the trip and Brier would have made it the whole way, but we got delayed from landing and had to fly around in circles for like 10 minutes and that last 10 minutes of the trip Brier crashed, hard! So here we are trying to get off the plane, go through customs, get our luggage and our kids are dragging butt so bad! Brier was asleep and had to be carried – which the lady at the check in point for customs allowed us to “cut” in line because we were carrying a sleeping child! Thank you Brier!!!

After all that we got to the pick up area and there was no body there to get us! So you have 2 extremely tired children, 2 extremely tired adults, and no body to pick you up and get you where you need to be…so you can finally lay down and rest! Needless to say we weren’t all that pleased.

Actually, I was rather ticked. It seems to me that if you have a serviceman and his family flying in, that you would send someone from your “flight” to pick him and his family up! When we went to Utah we had someone meet us, and the same in Ohio…so FYI if you are in the service and you are the sponsor of the new personnel coming in…meet them at the Airport!!! Especially if they are arriving overseas from the states with their family in tow! This is my personal opinion and I feel very strongly about it – if you’ve not guessed. It’s just simply the right thing to do.

So anyway – let’s get off my tangent and back to my story. We finally got a hold of the shuttle van and the guy that was supposed to pick us up. Thankfully, even though he’d been to the airport once already (too early), he turned around and came back to get us. He was a very nice man – although this England driving is a bit spooky…especially in London! Holy cow!! People just weave in and out and use their gas more than their brakes and WOW!!! I recommend “on foot” “by bike” or “by motorcycle” haha. And yep, they drive on the wrong side of the road, plus they have a lot of round-a-bouts (those will be confusing), the lanes are more narrow, and the traffic in London is heavy! As a matter of fact they charge you for driving during congestion hours. It’s called none other than “Congestion Charge” – and I guess it’s something like $16! Crazy uh?

We drove past Parliament, Big Ben, and The London Bridge, rather quickly I might add. I can’t wait to take a family trip down there and take pictures! However, I assumed we were like 70 miles north of London and we just might be…but the drive from London to Mildenhall is like 2 hours! So the trip will have to wait until we are settled, I believe. It will be awesome once we go see it all though. The area out away from London is a lot calmer, and its farm country! You see lots of open land – it’d be so great for horseback riding. I saw some beautiful countryside today and I look forward to checking it out further.

However, right now we have to focus our energy on adjusting to the time change! It’s like 3:32 in Missouri, so 4:32 in Ohio, and like 9:30 here – if my math is right. Rumor is I might need a math class! So I know what time it is, how hot to heat the oven, and the electrical things. It’s all different! We have a lot of learning to do, which will be easier to do once we get a place to live and that is one of our top priorities, getting a home and getting the kids in school. They are already starting late as it is.

Some of the things that we’ve already noticed that are different are the street/highway signs – that’s going to take a lot of work getting used to, not to mention the driving on the wrong side of the road thing. Its kind a like a maze out here…you feel like you are going round and round and yet some how you end up at the correct destination.

The first thing we noticed was in the airport. Ashlynn & I had to go to the bathroom and instead of the sign saying “Restrooms” it says “Toilets”. Which I guess is okay, because you are going to use the toilet, your not going into a room to rest. Why we American’s call it Restrooms I’m not sure. I was going to take a picture of it, but there was a sign in the airport that said “no cell phones and no photography”. First time I’d ever seen that in an airport!

Anyway – I’m sure we will see and learn more tomorrow, as we get out and about. Right now we are in our temporary lodging and looking forward to finding a home, soon! We are all very tired. We all took naps today and we are going to try to go to bed in an hour or so, so that perhaps we can wake up in the daytime and get our bodies a little more adjusted to the time change.

Thank you for all your prayers for us during our flight and praise God that everything went smoothly. Now, we are praying that we find a good, decent, comfortable home that we won’t mind living in for 3 years or longer (depending) and that will be in a safe location. Some towns apparently aren’t too friendly with “American’s”. So we are praying for the right town or village (whatever they’re called) and the right home. So if you could continue to remember us as we house hunt – we’d truly appreciate it.

I hope all of you are doing well, we miss you already – but we’re still excited! I pray some of you will really get the chance to come see us! God Bless and goodnight.

~T~

Joshua 1:9 “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”