Today's the day! The bus is pulling out at 7am. We were all up a lot earlier than normal. We had weighed the suitcases last night and made sure they were all at 40 pounds each (pretty much exactly). We stripped the beds and got loads of laundry started to minimize the work for Michell when she came with the crew to clean after we had left. We wiped down the cupboards and spot swept before heading out to say our goodbyes.
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| Kaylyn and Michell |
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| Me and Michell |
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| Noah and Gibran |
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| Noah and Nikoll |
As soon as I came out of the house, Alejandra ran over to me crying and wouldn't let me go. This is going to be difficult since she is positive that she will not see me again. I wrote her a letter and perhaps hers was the longest letter of the ones I wrote since she had told me that in her last visit with her mom, she was told that her mom would be coming for her next year. I will still have Christmas, I let her know. And my goal is to buy her a photo album and put in all the photos I have taken of her over the years.
Kaylyn was invited up to the team house by Michell and Dulce, who braided her hair for her travels home. Michell also gave her some hoop earrings as a gift and also sent an extra pair along for Alina. Noah spent a lot of time running around to say his goodbyes as well. He thanked David and Lydia again for allowing him to grow up here over the past 7 years. Michell had made us some burritos, so I heated them up quickly before we took off so that we could eat that as our breakfast on the bus.
We rode Emmanuel's bus with the team back to Comayagua's International airport. The bus stopped just outside of Tegucigalpa for a bathroom and snack break. A few of the team members had purchased snacks and donuts and other pastries...and when they had their fill, I guess Noah was the "garbage disposal" for them. He got to eat well on the bus today!
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| Kaylyn was a bit tired |
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| Kaylyn, Lori, Chino, Noah, Jaden |
The process in going home is first to go through the line for minors (since I had the 3 smaller ones with me) and to get the passports all stamped to leave the country. Everyone aside from Jaden was fingerprinted both on the way into the country and on the way out. Jaden had his picture taken, which I am guessing is due to it being his first time into the country and I am sure he'll be fingerprinted next year.
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| John and Noah |
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| Kaylyn decided to braid my hair while waiting for our plane |
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| Kaylyn deciding to be goofy |
After passing through migration of minors, we headed to the baggage check. Of course the lady asked me if I had coffee in my suitcases and I gave her a smile and told her "2 suitcases FULL!". She smiled at me and let me go on. We checked our bags and then had to head through security where they looked at the stamps on our passports and then had to go through the normal 'TSA' stuff. When we got to our gate, it wasn't long before we had to board the plane that would take us to Fort Lauderdale. All in all, the flights from Honduras to Florida were good as well as the flight from Florida to Chicago. But when we arrived in Chicago it took us 2 hours from touch down to us actually leaving the airport. The tram was not running and everything seemed to be shut down. Add that to the fact that I forgot which parking lot we parked in...it made for a long process.
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| Look at all the international flights! |
It was Noah's job to keep me awake until Fond du Lac and he shared some things that surprised me along that drive, while the other 2 children slept. I don't want to announce what he said publicly on this blog as it's really his news to share when the time is right...but I am excited for his new adventures in life as he goes through his senior year of high school and then for what will come afterwards!
In Fond du Lac, Noah swapped out the front seat with Kaylyn and she kept me awake for the remainder of the way home. The last stretch (from north Oshkosh to our house) was definitely the most difficult and I feared I might actually fall asleep with my eyes open. Kaylyn said she saw me zoning out on more than one occasion. When we got home, of course it was straight to the bed for me.
Travel to Honduras...10pm until about 11am the next day.
Travel home from Honduras...7am until about 5am the next day. And not to mention that you are already tired and in transit back to real life.
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| Until next year!!! 💗 |
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| Just a little snippet of the well over 50 notes and pictures we've received from children at Emmanuel |
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