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Monday, June 22, 2009

Made it!

It was loooooong, but we made it! the Indonesia portion of our journey actually went very smoothly. The rest of it, not so much. It was a bit of a pain in Singapore, b/c we had to leave the airport to stay in a hotel, which involved dealing with immigration, customs, etc. Plus travelling to and from the hotel took extra time. It meant a very short night!!

The flight from Singapore to Tokyo treated us to almost constant moderate turbulance for over seven hours due to a never-ending line of thuderstorms. Poor Tanner threw up about a dozen times...both Joy and I were baptized more than once. After using all the sick sacks in both of our rows, we had to ask for more! Poor little guy!

We arrived in Tokyo and got stuck in a massive herd of people (think African wildabeast migration). I still can't figure out why they always make every person go through security immediately after getting off a plane? Weren't we all ALREADY checked PRIOR to boarding the plane? And if someone was going to do something, wouldn't it have been BEFORE they got off of the airplane? And as if that wasn't confusing enough, they check you again before letting you into the individual gates. So why do you have to get checked extremely thoroughly, just after deboarding??? And there's four or five international flights arriving at the same time, and being ushered through only three lines that move very slow. It's insane!! Well, we would have missed our next flight, but after sweating and working our way through the heard for almost 2 hours, and running through the airport (thinking it had already left, based off of the TV screen information,) we found that our flight hadn't even arrived in Tokyo yet. So we made it on our flight, but left Tokyo almost three hours late.

However, we arrived in Portland after our flight had already departed and were unable to get another flight till the following day. Since leaving the hotel in Singapore, we had been travelling non-stop for almost 40 hours befere we got sleep in a bed. Ya, it was a marathon!! So after five days of travel we arrive here at MAF headquarters, exhausted. But it's been great to re-connect with good friends from the area, and we look forward to the busy week ahead. Thanks for your prayers!

Oh yeah, the locals say it's nice weather here, but we're freezing!!

5 comments:

Jeanne Larson said...

We're glad you made it safely. Sorry it was such an ordeal. We're hoping to get to see you sometime while you're in the states.
Take care.

Jeanne (for all the Larsons)

Unknown said...

Welcome home Joy, Dave and kiddos!
We thank God for your safe journey.
Get some well deserved rest. Eat lots of Taco Bell. Recharge your batteries for the next six months with family and friends.

Praying always - Dixie and Lew

Growingtogether said...

Welcome back to the states.
You, Joy and the kids are in our prayers. Where all do you travel while you are here? Do you make it to the east coast?
Hope you enjoy your time here.
Thanks, Connie

Pamela said...

I left a comment on your wife's blog also...just wondering if you'll be making it down to Florida? I saw that Tennessee is on your list of states to visit and that you'll be coming to some southern states. Would love to hear if you are and whether we might get to come meet you and your great family. Thanks!!
Dan & Pamela (Lakeland, Florida)
danpamhawk@gmail.com

Carrie said...

I'm enjoying this and Joy's blog. We are also a missionary family of 7, so we can relate to many of your experiences.

I hope you all get the rest and relaxation that you need.