Carnesville: Our very long trip back to Asia...

We had a wonderful 6 months in the states, but alas it was time to return! The day came quickly, and we were as ready as we could be. I hate saying goodbye. Hate it. I bawled my eyes out all the way through security until we got to the gate. It's the feeling of leaving so much behind. Hello's are always more pleasant. Once we arrived at our gate I knew the next thing I would say to our family would be hello which gave me some comfort. At that point I had to focus on the long journey ahead of us getting to the other side of the world. I knew I needed an abundance of patience and tried just to take an hour at a time. Our planned 24 hour trip took a crazy crazy turn and ended up taking us 46 hours! My patience ran out around hour 25, but the Lord was gracious to get us through it. I knew we'd make it at some point, but exhaustion took on a new meaning for me.

Our flight left at 10am so we had to get up very early to get to the airport. We did get to see a beautiful sunrise which I count a blessing from Him.

Our 8 pieces of luggage ready to get tags and be sent onto a plane. Fortunately, the first bag weighed exactly 50lbs, so they just decided not to weigh anymore. PTL! I had basically been packing to come back since we got to the states, so we were ready! After weeks of weighing each of these bags 10+ times, our bags had a whole lot of love in them.

Anxiously awaiting the first plane. Little did we know...

I honestly don't remember that first flight. It was SO long ago. I don't really even remember where we flew to. Haha. Our second flight, we were ready for the double decker.

We were on the second to last row of the plane. The only downside to that is everyone likes to walk to the back and open that window shown in the picture behind Caden and let light flood in while we were trying to sleep. Grrrr.

Sweet Grady quickly napped while we watched endless movies.

The Superhero book kept them occupied for a small portion of the trip.

We made it to our country but had to pick up our bags and recheck them for our last flight. Everything made it! I had all our carry-on's with the boys on the stroller so Britton had to push all our bags. Quite a laugh. We found a nice man willing to help us. Packing for 3 years ain't easy!

Our flight began getting delayed then kept getting delayed. Finally, after 6 hours of getting delayed they cancelled it. We think it was because of fog, but it was never really made clear. We have our own opinions that we will not say. My patience wore thin by this picture. Caden was beyond exhausted as was I. Britton and I tried taking turns resting but with the constant delayed flight I was fading fast. We had to be a little forward with the workers there because they wanted to keep all of us together and check us into a hotel. We said we had to just go on. We had to pick up our bags and recheck them. Thank goodness some people helped us. Then we tried grabbing some food at 1am and rode a bus for 40 minutes to our hotel. Fortunately, the hotel was awesome and super nice. They also gave us 2 rooms so we all had our own bed, which was great because I don't think Grady slept at all while I slept for 4 hours since he slept several hours in the stroller. The rest of us sacked out though.

Finally to a hotel. We were only there for about 6 hours, but it was nice to get a shower and lay down.

Yay! Back to the airport! I'm fully convinced that it is not healthy to be on a plane for this long. The boys were so sweet and did so well despite the situation.

Yes Caden, there it is! There's our LAST plane that we waited 17 hours on!!!

When we got off our last flight, I nearly fell over and fainted. I did not want to see another airplane for a while. I needed fresh air and rest. So so so thankful for our dear precious friends who came to the airport to see us. We were all so happy to see each other.