The Adventure Begins

We made it! I got 2 hours of sleep and Tara pulled an all-nighter and last night trying to get all our loose ends tied up (animals, cleaning, final packing, laundry, etc). Last night, we also dropped off our infant foster son who my mom is watching while we are gone. So, if this post is a bit scattered brained, it is due to lack of sleep.

This morning at 3am, we threw kids in the van with our mountain of luggage, picked up my dad (for the return van trip) and headed to the airport. The Cleveland airport was surprisingly busy at 4am, but we made it through. After getting through the line, security was actually the most pleasant experience I’ve ever had. It helped to have cute kids, but they weren’t requiring us to take out laptops or remove our shoes.

This trip is about introducing our kids to new experiences, and it was fun seeing Quin and Thea learn to find gates and gain confidence (to the point, we almost lost them because they were so far ahead of Tara, myself, and a slow Cheyenne). Cheyenne was cute with her lady bug backpack and Elmo. The kids all enjoyed the take off in their first experience in a commercial jet. Quin and Thea did fine for the most part. Cheyenne was a challenge. Keeping a fidgety 3-year-old who was low on sleep in her chair was not today’s highlight. We made our connecting flight in Miami easily with about a 1-hour layover.

Side story, for an early Christmas before we left, my Steiner side of family opted to give us cash towards an area of need instead of buying each other presents. “Area of need” was left to our judgement/spirit leaning.

I didn’t expect our first recipient of this gift to be on the first day, much less the flight to Nicaragua, but that’s exactly what happened.  Our flight to Managua was packed.  Before our flight took off, Quin sat next to a lady who was deep in a phone conversation in Spanish, and mid conversation completely broke down sobbing. I felt like I was supposed to do something, but didn’t know how to approach a complete stranger. Early in the flight, I ended up helping her with her with immigration paperwork. It seemed like she had never done that, or even flown before. Through further conversation I learned her father had just passed away yesterday. She has been working the past 6 months in Tennessee with her daughter. She doesn’t speak English and has been pretty isolated because nobody but her daughter speaks Spanish where she has been living. Because of her father’s death, she took an emergency flight to Nicaragua (from Esteli area), with tickets costing her $1800. Based on the conversation, I could tell that was as stretch for her. So as she was leaving the plane, I slipped her $100. It wasn’t much, but I hope it brightened her day in the mist of a very hard time.

When we finally got to Nicaragua, it took over an hour to get through customs. Marcelo, Lydell’s brother-in-law was waiting for us, because we had to suitcases for him. He also had a sim card ready, so I now have a phone with internet. Our driver to our language school was also kept waiting, but fortunately was still there.

It was about an hour drive to La Mariposa Spanish Language School. Everybody but Thea and myself passed out on the trip. Driving the streets of Nicaragua, I was struck with similarities to other Latin American countries I’ve been to, including Bolivia where I grew up when I was Quin and Thea’s age. So as a random person washed our windshield at a red light for a few coins, or others tried to sell us things through the window, or as we passed small shops and a completely foreign world from Ohio, I thought to myself how much I was looking forward to showing my kids a new culture.

The schools is great. Our living accommodations at the school fit us well. The kids all have their own bed, and we have a private bathroom. It was fun seeing our kids explore the school (they have monkeys!), and forget how tired they were. I’m sure we’ll have plenty more to share about this amazing language school in the future, but for now I hear the bed calling my name.

Blessings to all of you back home. (We don’t miss you to badly yet).

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