With all our paperwork done, we headed to the beach!

On the way to report to immigration.

I

Now we've dealt with immigration in the US for the past 8 years and whenever we actually had to go to the office downtown I always felt like I was going to get in trouble.

Here, however, they loved us:) They put up with Gideon's craziness

entertained Raquel and gave her a donut

and passed Roman around the whole hour and a half we were there.

A Flight to forget

We left the capital on Sunday to go and get our paperwork done on another island. As we drove to the airport it was pouring rain and the roads were flooding. Our taxi driver was driving so fast I didn't know if we would make it to the airport alive. You can't tell from the picture, but the water was pretty high.

At the airport we found out that our flight had been delayed an hour and a half. This gave us the opportunity to chase Gideon through the airport for an extra hour and a half. At this point he had still not slept through the night. It was 5 in the evening and he had only had a half hour nap that day after waking up at 4 in the morning.

The meal they gave us for waiting

As we finally boarded the plane we realized that we weren't sitting together. Raquel and I ended up sitting in the first row and Dylan and Gideon were in the middle of the plane. It was a two hour flight and for the first hour I fed Roman helped Raquel get to the bathroom and eat a snack and listened to the ruckus coming from behind us. I went back to see if Dylan wanted a break and I thought he might cry when I got there. Here is what he posted on Facebook the next day:

So on last night's flight, Gideon screamed for a good 2 hrs, elbowed 2 people in the head, grabbed an old man's hair(what was left of it), grabbed some lady's head covering, ate someone's cookies he was saving for his kids... The list goes on. To top it all off, while leaving the airport someone called him a demon!

Now, to be fair, the man offered Dylan the cookies in an attempt to calm Gideon down and the man who called him a demon said it in a most endearing fashion;) but it was a pretty awful time. Thankfully the people around us were mostly helpful and understanding. Gideon liked the lady sitting across from us and sat on her lap a few times and also liked sitting on the floor a little bit, but otherwise he just wanted to climb on the seats and just screamed and fought like crazy if he was supposed to be sitting on our laps when the seatbelt sign was on. Poor kid was exhausted afterward. We landed at 11pm and all went straight to bed. That was the first night we all slept until almost 8!

We're done flying for a few days and then just two more flights until we're completely done!

To combat jet lag and keep the kids up during the day we went to the mall one of the days we were in the capital.

In the taxi on the way there- no seat belts required. Gideon and Roman were passed back and forth throughout the ride.

The malls in the capital are amazing. The one we went to has about 10 floors, full of fancy stores and restaurants. We opted for the casual, more familiar Carl's Jr.:) As you can see, Gideon is always 'on the go'.

and then on to the main attraction- the play place! It costs $6 for an all day pass. You can actually leave your kids there with your phone number so they can call you if there's a problem, but we just took turns watching them and going to stores:)

Roman was content to watch the big kids:)

We made it!

Heading to Chicago- the hand holding lasted for about 10 seconds until Gideon was totally over it, but it was cute while it lasted.

At O'Hare- we had 11 checked bags! A huge THANK YOU to Evan and Zach for driving us and our stuff down.

There was a slight hiccup when they told us they had to weigh our carry ons (they were all a few pounds overweight since we had to pack for about two weeks of traveling in them). I almost cried, but we were able to move some stuff to the large bags and they didn't even charge us extra! Evan helped us rearrange and weigh bags while Zach helped run after Gideon:)

Waiting for our plane.

It wasn't a full flight so we got two rows of seats to ourselves!

I sat with Raquel and Roman while Dylan and Gideon sat behind us.

Before we took off Raquel prayed very loudly that we wouldn't crash. I'm sure it was very comforting to those around us:)

Do you see the exhaustion in Dylan's smile?:) Yes, Gideon did sleep- AFTER a few hours of crying, screaming, running up and down the aisles of the plane and just causing general mayhem. It didn't help that he was getting a nasty cold.

Roman was a good baby and just ate and slept

After our 15 hour flight we arrived in Hong Kong. We spent the night at a hotel there and got a few hours of sleep.

Waiting for our plane in Hong Kong- one of Gideon's rare 'still' moments. I think it's because he was eating.

Our second flight was pretty uneventful except we realized that Gideon had a fever and then I started to feel a little achy.

When we landed it was hot! We stood in line at immigration for some time during which Raquel had a meltdown and refused to walk at one point and Gideon tried to escape our grasp at all times. He ended up throwing his pacifier onto an elevator.

So we're here! We are trying to get some rest. I had a fever last night but I think it's finally over. Now we're just all really tired and look kind of like this.

We are very thankful for everyone who was praying for us- the Lord is so faithful.

It's good to be back!

Saying Goodbye

Raquel's last day of school

February 2nd was Raquel's last day of school. Dylan and I came at the end of the day when her class had a going away party for her. Each child had made a card for her and then she got a big card from the whole class. We talked a little bit about Asia-Pacific and then they each went up and gave her a hug and she gave them a brownie. They all sat down and feasted on popcorn, brownies and juice boxes. Raquel passed out Valentine cards and little coin purses from Asia-Pacific.

Raquel has really enjoyed her Kindergarten experience. She will miss all the friends from her class. Her teacher told us that one of the boys had been crying that morning when they were

talking about her leaving and one of the girls told me that we had made a bad decision- at least

she was being honest, albeit a little sassy:)

Another of Gideon's girl hats

another cute baby picture

Wouldn't you be comfortable sleeping like this?

Roman's dedication

On the 29th of January we had Roman's dedication/send off for our family.

Roman slept during both services. At one point Raquel was pulling

on Gideon's feet so he smacked her on the head and said "No 'quel!"

Other than that everything went smoothly.

We are so thankful for the body of Christ at Crossway Church!

Roman and Abram hanging out after the service.

Roman's lamb cake from Grandma:)