Traveling Back To America

     In early September we set out for America!  Nettie kindly brought us to the airport.  There was an hour or so delay, so we waited in the middle of the airport.  Suddenly, there was an announcement that the flight was delayed 29 hours and to come back tomorrow.  And that's it!  There was nobody around to ask questions of.  Because of where we live, we can't purchase connecting tickets to reach America, so we were worried that we'd have to buy all new overseas tickets.  We even entertained the idea of immediately driving 7-8 hours to Irkutsk to catch their midnight flight to Seoul so that we'd make our other connecting flights (Marius even agreed to drive us!)... but it turns out those tickets would have been just as much as buying new overseas tickets.

     Thankfully, God took good care of us.  We had to make some calls to the airlines, but thankfully they graciously gave us new tickets with hardly any cost.  This just meant that we had a longer layover than planned.  This time was a gift!  Bruce made us a gigantic breakfast feast and we hung out at his place for most of the day.

     He has great kids games.  After such a busy summer, it was just what our family needed before "changing worlds".

We took a little city tour and hung out by the fountain downtown.

When given meal options, Ike will choose borscht almost every time! 

     When it was time to leave the second time, The Giuras met us with love, gifts, and hugs.

Marius drove us to the airport.  

Getting ready for round two!

     Our original flight plan was to arrive in Seoul in the evening.  But our new plan put us there in the middle of the night.

    Because of the flight schedules and prices, our new plan also put us in South Korea for a day and a half!  This was also a special gift for our family to have this surprise time together.  We took the metro into downtown Seoul, toured a beautiful park and ate street food.

     We also hung out at the river.  All three of our kids fell into the water!  At least the weather was nice!

     We stayed at a random guest house where nobody really spoke English.  The owner was very kind, though, and drove us to this place for an authentic Korean meal.  We cooked everything right on the grill at our table.

     Now we've arrived and are enjoying seeing family.  It was very quick settling in, as we are living in my parents' neighbors' house while they're in Florida.  After a summer of chaos, this was ideal for transitioning!

     We are already traveling and have already begun sharing at churches in western Washington.  We are homeschooling as we go.  We are looking for people who will faithfully pray for Buryatia.  We're hoping to find 1,000 prayer partners!