This past month has brought some big changes to our lives. As soon as Abigail Marie was born, things began coming together for our departure to Southeast Asia. Things like getting Abbie's birth certificate and Social Security card in record time. Things like having her passport in our hands before she was a month old. Things like receiving a grant for the last bit of our needed funding. Amazing things! Just after Christmas we were given the go-ahead to buy our plane tickets, and on January 3rd after all our holiday gatherings had taken place we began departure preparations in earnest. Let me tell you, those next 2 weeks were crazy! I still don't know how we got everything done, but it certainly wouldn't have happened without the help of all our wonderful friends and family members.
We flew out the evening of Wednesday, January 19.
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| At the Albuquerque airport, ready to go through security | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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| Toby and his friend Elmo sleeping on the plane |
Both Toby and Abbie were fantastic on the flights. They slept a good deal, and Toby wandered the plane with Papa for a while during the long international flight. Our flight attendants were very attentive, even bringing Toby a special treat of ice cream from the first class section. After traveling for about 24 hours on 4 different airplanes, we arrived at the Singapore airport. We had a 16 hour layover there, which gave us time to check into a hotel right in the airport, sleep, shower, and have some fun before our next flight.
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| Eating breakfast at a Thai restaurant in the airport |
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| A butterfly garden inside the airport |
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| A boat we saw during our quick tour of Singapore |
We left Singapore Saturday evening for our last 2 flights. Getting through customs, changing to a domestic flight with its different baggage restrictions, and taking an all-night flight to our final destination was pretty rough. We were so glad to arrive at last--after 3 days of travel. The community here has welcomed us with kind words and good food. They have been so gracious to us. We are slowly adjusting to the heat and humidity here, and we have begun to study to local language a little on our own. We'll be here for a few weeks to get Abbie's visa in order, then we will fly to another city to begin language school. The journey has only begun....
