Coming to America

In honor of the 20th anniversary of this comedy classic, I'll give you the lowdown on our last 3 weeks back in America.

the trip home: Things went pretty well, considering all 6 of us were traveling for several hours. Waiting in line at the counter in Quito, it looked like it could be a real long day(s?) when it showed the flight to Panama was delayed. But after some brief and heartfelt prayers, the board showed the flight was back on time. We still had to hurry through the airport in Panama (Panama now joins Taiwan as countries I've been in, but only in the airport) to catch our next flight to Washington. We arrived in Washington about on time at 1 a.m. and got throught immigration and customs without to much trouble. Our conversation at customs actually went like this.
Customs agent: "Do you have any food?"
Us: "No"
Customs agent: "O.K., have a nice night"
How excited we all were to see Jod's Mom and Dad waiting for us when we walked through the doors a couple moments later!!

culture shock about coming back to the US:
-Strangers talk English
-It's still light out past 6:30. One of the first nights Luke said "It's not bedtime, it's still light out"
-$1.50 for a a 20 oz. soda
-Restaurants have lots of items on the menu. We sort of miss almuerzos being the only option

our week in Massachusetts:
We had a great time hanging out with our friends and without our combined 13 kids. It's so cool to have such great friends. We had a fun week filled with hikes, rafting trip, mini-golf, tennis, Wii, cards, foosball, and lots of sleeping in. A highlight of the week was on Thursday night when we prayed together for each of all of our children.

back in Lancaster:
It's been pretty busy with appointments, meeting w/ friends, Spanish class, phone calls and other stuff. Worshipping again at our home church has been very refreshing! The kids are keeping busy and having fun (for the most part). They've been enjoying spending time with Grandpa and Grandma and seeing some of their friends. Tomorrow we leave for Syracuse to spend a week with my family.

Hope you're all enjoying your summer!