"On the road again".....or should I say "In the air again" and 26 hours later

Michawn and I are sitting at the table, both on our computers, the two older kids are at school, and the two little ones are down for a nap and Michawn was like "You need to blog." So thats what im doing.

This title is not accurate, it has been longer than 26 hours. But it took me about 26 hours to get here. Monday morning I got up at 7 to tell my dad and brother bye because they had to leave to go to a golf tournament for one of the scholarships Colby got for school. After telling them bye I finished packing and got ready to leave. We (Mom, Aunt Nena, Tucker, and I) stopped by Granny's to tell her, Aunt Marilyn, and Ariel bye. Then we headed off to Shreveport to eat at my FAVORITE restaurant, Red Lobster. The guy that waited on us was awesome. Aunt Nena ordered 2 dozen biscuits for me to bring to Brazil for Michawn and the family. Well our waiter did not charge us for them and he also went through a lot of trouble to package them to make them easy to carry around. He was great. So after we ate, we headed off to CVS to get me a calling card so I could call home during my 8 hour layover in Rio De Janeiro. Then off to the Airport to check my luggage and all that good stuff. Well for those of you who dont know, the airlines are starting to only allow 1 checked bag and you have to pay for the additional bags. I had two bags and they were both overweight. My Aunt Nena was generous and paid the 2 overweight fees and the additional bag fee. After all of that was taken care of I said my goodbyes and I love yous and headed through security and to my gate. The flight from Shreveport to Atlanta left at 4 pm. The flight was good and we had no problems or complications. I had about a 2 hour layover in Atlanta so I got me my favorite fast food, McDonalds, for supper. I talked on the phone some and did some text messaging to pass the time. The over night flight was also good. I sat by a Brazilian guy who spoke English so that was good. I slept most of the flight, which is unusual for me. Normally I cant sleep very good on the over night flights, but I had no problem. When arriving at Rio De Janeiro I went through passport check and to baggage claim to get all of my stuff then proceeded to customs. I went straight through customs with no problems. They did not check anything or ask me any questions. Awesome right (most trips I tend to be the one to get checked from head to toe and all of my stuff looked through)? I head upstairs to check my bags and get my boarding pass and all that good stuff. I found a lady that spoke English and she informed me that I had to wait until 12 or after to check in. So I got "buff" from about 8:30 to 12. When I would get tired of sitting around I had to hall all of my luggage around with me to walk some. Keep in mind that I had 2 checked pieces one weighing about 70 lbs and the other about 85 lbs plus my carry on which weighed about 20 lbs, my purse, and my pillow and blanket. :-) can't go anywhere without my pillow and blanket. Oh the calling card situation, almost forgot. So after I find out I can't check in until 12 or after I went to go find a phone to call mom and dad. I could not get the card to work. When I activated my card while in Atlanta the lady gave me instructions on how to use it to call the US from Brazil. I could not get it to work at all. I started to panic for a second but then I thought well maybe I can get on the internet and see if Michawn and them were on Skype and get them to call mom and dad. What do you know, I could not get internet service either. So now im really starting to panic. I started walking and started praying that God would let me run into someone who spoke English. I asked this one worker if he spoke English and he said no, well while I was asking him I overheard these people speaking English. So I turned around and there were 3 men and a lady. These 3 men just so happened to be from Louisiana around the Homa area. The lady was Brazilian and she let me use her cell phone to call Joel and Michawn. For some reason I wrote their Brazil phone numbers down and boy was I thankful. Thank you Lord for letting me write their Brazil numbers down. God was totally watching after me and taking care of everything I needed as he always does. So after 3 tries I got a hold of Joel and he told Michawn and she got word to my mom and dad and let them know I was in Rio and ok but that I wouldn't be able to call every two hours like my mom wanted. So time began to slowly start passing by. 12:00 rolled around and I went to this guy Hosea who spoke English, and again God took care of everything, Hosea took all of my stuff and completely did everything for me. He also informed me of some good news, which was that I did not have to pay another additional baggage fee or the two over weight fees. Talk about awesome. Hosea was great! Thank you Lord for letting me run into him. I get to my gate and find out that our plane is not there so I was delayed another 2 hours so now instead of being in this airport for 8 hours I was in there for 10, but I can't complain. God was totally with me and let everything line up perfectly. While I was at my gate this pastor from here in Brazil that spoke a little English came and sat with me and we talked a while. One of the things that really touched me that he said was "My dream is to be able to preach a sermon in all English." So the whole time we talked I introduced him to some new English words and helped him know how to use certain words. Our plane finally arrived and we were on our way to Goiania where Michawn and Joel would pick me up. When I walked through the door and saw Michawn, Joel, Eissa, and Cass I started crying. Michawn started laughing and said why are you crying? I was so excited to see them I could not help it. I could hardly even talk lol. It was funny but a great feeling to finally see family that you haven't seen in over a year. We got to their house between 8:30 and 9 and some of their friends were here to have a bible study/ meeting thing. Michawn and I just went to the kitchen to chill and finish cooking the supper. After everyone left I got the privilege to be Santa for Michawn and Joel and give them all the stuff I brought to them. Michawn and I stayed up until about 2 this morning and finally went to bed after some Oreos lol. Well thats the update for the trip over. Pictures later, Michawn (the expert blogger) has to show me how to do them.

Here are a few pictures that Joel took of us when I arrived! Thanks Joel!