Home Again

We Made the Paper!, originally uploaded by russandval.

We did make it home from the missionary conference--about twelve hours later than anticipated. The airport in Curitiba was having major radio problems so everything got super delayed.

We (us and the Parkers) arrived at the airport with everyone else from the conference and had a lot of time to kill. We checked in and then headed over to our friends' house. The kids all played together for a while and we got to spend some more time with Kyle and Leslie. Then we headed back to the airport, getting there just in time to board. We got through security, sat down and, moments later, discovered our flight had been delayed. It kept getting delayed later and later. Talking to the airline, we discovered our plane hadn't even left the previous airport so we headed out of the gate area and back to McDonalds. As we finished eating, they announced our flight so we went tearing back through security. Once we got back to the gate, however, they wouldn't let us board. The guy kept saying we needed to leave security again and go to the counter, which we were reluctant to do while our flight was boarding. Stacey went into the VIP lounge to get more information and while she was in there, I heard them announce Russ and Lauren's names over the PA. (We still don't know why they only announced the two of them!) We left the gate area once more and stood in line at the counter. After a few minutes, we found out that because everything was so delayed it would be quite a long night if we wanted to make our connections. But the airline was ready to put us all up at a hotel, give us a meal, transport us to the hotel and then put us on the flight of our choice on Saturday. The best choice of flight happened to leave at 6:20 AM, so by the time we got to the hotel at midnight and left the hotel at 5:00, we didn't get much sleep. (But still much, much better than spending the night in the airport!)

At the airport on Friday night, I noticed a photographer. His camera was pointed directly at us. We joked about how funny it would be to make the paper but he was taking a bunch of other pictures, too, so we really didn't think we would. But Saturday morning, just in case, I grabbed a paper. And there we were! Tiny, but there!

I spent most of yesterday sleeping. I slept on the airplane from Porto Alegre, slept while the plane stopped in São Paulo, slept on the flight to Salvador, ate lunch and then slept some more and still managed to go to bed at 11:00 and sleep all night long. I'm pretty sure I have a nap in me this afternoon, too. So once I'm done with all the sleeping, I'll share some stuff with you from this week. Until then, ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ........................