We're Leaving on a Jet Plane

Blog Post About January 2021

The morning we were leaving, we got up early to get PCR tests. Everyone was a real trooper except me. One of my children has a video of it, but of course, I will spare you, and it will remain hidden.

Several friends came to pray over us and say goodbye as we were loading the car. For the things that wouldn't fit (see one of the items in this post), a sweet friend mailed them to us.

We made it to the airport with zero positive Covid tests and said our last goodbye to Kylie from the same. time zone.

Keira always has some crazy "arrival eyes."

And when I finally had access to my texts again, we had a sweet text from Kylie ;)

After arriving, we settled in a hotel and Doug got our car from a friend who had been taking care of it. 

After getting some sleep, Doug ran some much-needed errands. 

One of those errands was scheduling for the "generator man" to come and hook our house up to the neighborhood generator.

We went to see the house we had rented 7 months early. It was Keira's first time to see it and mine and Karis' second.

The man that kept our car had some guys clean the house for us before we got there, but unfortunately, they didn't do the most thorough job.

While Doug was unlocking the door for us to go inside, I saw this plug in the outside porch area.

Guess we aren't supposed to use it :)

Thankfully, city power was on, so we had lights. 

You can see where we ran our fingers over the wall in all of the dust the cleaners had left behind.

The "generator man" was late. We waited for TWO hours (cleaning in the meantime), but he never came.

January 14, 2021

The next day, Doug graciously hired the cleaners we've had for our other houses, and they did a fan-tab-u-lous job!

They bring about 12 guys and clean from the roof all the way out the front door.

Yes, they literally mop their way out to the street!!

January 15, 2021

Some dear friends of ours invited us to live with them until we could actually get in our house. The hotel was expensive, so we took them up on their offer. Karis went to live with two single girls, and the other 4 of us moved in with our friends.

This is our luggage as we are leaving the hotel.

Two days later, Doug and I went to a "cabinet" store to order our cabinets. You knew that most houses come without cabinets, right?

Doug had already met the man on a previous day at the house to take measurements.

This is what our cabinets looked like on the man's computer when we finished.

Is this what we got?  No

Did we get them within a month?  No

The saga continues...

December Arrived

Blog About Fall 2020

On December 1st, there was a light frost on the ground and we were so excited! We were hoping for snow, and we are "snow" thankful we got to see some actual snow before we flew back overseas, but my condolences to those of you who endured the Snowpocalypse that hit Texas in January, a few days after we left.

Caleb continued to play soccer until we left in January and loved it! He was coached well and learned a lot. Now that we're back, he misses these big fields and disciplined coaching.

December 3, 2020

My daughter had been seeing these giant squish-mellows online while we were overseas, and it was so easy to say, "I'm so sorry, honey. I wish they had those here." 

But back in America, she decided this was one of the gifts she would like to have for Christmas. I left it at the store and went to ponder with Doug how we would get it back in our luggage (because we needed all our weight for school books and new clothes we had purchased).

Doug was optimistic and said, "We can get it back. No problem." 

And he was right. This cow with a unicorn horn (I'm joking, of course) shipped easily in a box and arrived shortly after we did. Keira lies on it when watching movies, sits on it while playing, and sleeps with it every night taking up half her bed.

Yeah for giant squish-mellows...

December 4, 2020

We took advantage of beautiful weather and having an outside eating area as much as we could. This is a real treat we don't often get to do at our home overseas, mainly because we live in a city in a house with no grass and a tiny, tiled sitting area.

Caleb and Doug also took advantage of a place to throw the football.
 

This same night, Karis and Keira had their holiday ballet performance. It was first planned to be inside with just a few people, but more relatives and friends wanted to see it.

The first two performances were put on zoom for others to see, and the studio let in a few people to each one. We watched online first, so I just drove the girls and dropped them off.

Karis' friend came to the first performance,

and then Doug and I drove up for the second performance.

A Quiet Thanksgiving and a Photo Shoot

Blog About Fall 2020

Thanksgiving was a quiet affair, and we changed things up a bit, since it was just us. My kids didn't grow up with "typical" Thanksgiving food (and it's not really their favorite), so overseas, we usually have Mexican food on Thanksgiving.

This year, we had a brisket and some other favorite foods that we enjoy when we're in America.

We all remained outside, socially distanced, and we tossed the football around and enjoyed the beautiful weather!!

We also had a family photo shoot planned for when Kylie was in town, but we delayed it 6 days to give more time for Doug to finish his recovery time. He didn't have horrible symptoms, but he also didn't want to be around others until the time limit was up.

 The day we rescheduled for was FRIGID and WINDY!

The above photos were obviously mine.

You can tell a difference because the ones below shine.

They were taken by the amazing Melissa Darst!

November travel with a touch of Covid

Blog About Fall 2020

Kylie didn't get to stay long, but we knew we'd see her soon.

A dear friend of mine drove to Texas from Mississippi to stay a few nights and visit with me. 

She asks the best questions, she is so fun to have conversations with, and she tells great stories.

While she was here, we drove out to the Bush Presidential Library. It was closed for Covid, but we were able to walk around the beautiful grounds and see where former President Bush had been laid to rest in 2018, along with Barbara and their daughter Robin, who died before her 4th birthday

November 14, 2020

This is a part of the Berlin Wall that is outside the Bush Library.

Doug had left a few days earlier. He drove to Memphis, Tennessee, to meet up with some friends from seminary.

After a few days with his friends in Memphis, Doug was able to go spend two days with Kylie in Nashville before driving back home through Arkansas where he met with some other friends.

If you haven't guessed by now, our time in America is usually crazy busy!

Doug drove home, he spent one night with us, and then drove to stay with his mom because he dad was going to have surgery.

 

His father made it through the surgery fine, but while Doug was sitting with him in the hospital, Doug got a call from one of his friends he had been with in Tennessee, and he told Doug he had tested positive for Covid.

Doug told the nurse, who didn't seem concerned, and he immediately left to get tested. He took two tests. His rapid test came back negative, but he drove home to quarantine while he waited to hear about the other test. 

We knew Kylie had been with him two days in Nashville, so we sent her to get tested, and I had spent one night with him between his trips, so I also went to get tested. Kylie and I came back negative, but Doug's test was positive.

Like many of you, plans had to change. Since we knew he had to quarantine for two weeks, we also knew we would have to cancel plans with family for our first Thanksgiving back in America since 2015. However, Kylie flew home for the holidays, and even though Doug distanced himself and stayed in our room a lot, we were able to having a small Thanksgiving celebration outside with just the 6 of us.