How We Spent Our Summer Vacation!!!

Ok…I understand that it’s now autumn and it has been too long since our last post. We have been back in Greece for one week now. Here is how our first furlough went.

We flew to the U.S. on June 4th. We arrived at the Eleftheros Venezelou International Airport in Athens about 3 hours early. After a smooth check-in, we were on the airplane. The aircraft had 3 seats in the middle section, with a 2-seat section on each side. We had the middle 3 seats only 2 rows from the middle bathrooms…a nice location. Emily did pretty well. She began to get restless about 10 hours into our flight (an 11 hour flight from Athens to Philadelphia, PA). She kept kicking the seat in front of her and this did not “fly” with the lady that was sitting in that seat. She eventually changed her seat to get away from this disruptive kid! We arrived in Philadelphia on time. Our tickets had us flying from Philadelphia to NY LaGuardia and then from NY LaGuardia to Charlotte, NC. We still don’t understand how they pick our flights. Because of the air traffic at LaGuardia, we left Philadelphia late and this made us miss our last flight to Charlotte. Upon landing at LaGuardia, we found a U.S. Airways ticket agent and explained our situation. He initially said, “I’m sorry, but the next flight for Charlotte leaves tomorrow at 6:30 am. You will have to retrieve your bags and set here in the airport all night.” This did not set well with us after traveling all day already. He did some finagling and changed our tickets to flying into Greensboro, NC. We contacted Brandie’s mom and dad and they left Charlotte and drove to Greensboro and arrived in time to meet us as we landed. It was a VERY late day and our luggage did not make the trip…but it was delivered the next day to my in-law’s house.

We should have known from this that the summer wasn’t going to be a “vacation.” By definition, a vacation is, “…A period of time devoted to pleasure, rest, or relaxation.” We flew back to the U.S. on Monday and by Thursday; we loaded the car that we were to drive (more on this latter) and drove to Indiana for a family reunion and our first meeting at Bethel Baptist Church in Greenwood, IN. The family reunion went well until my daughter made the decision to push her younger cousin down the steps…something that still haunts Elena to this day. J

The purpose of our trip this summer was to officiate the wedding of my brother Jared to his new wife, Elizabeth. It was on July 7, 2007 (07/07/07…Jared, you better not ever forget your anniversary). Emily was the flower girl (the most beautiful flower girl every…sorry everybody else L)! It was my first wedding and we made it through without any major problems.

The summer saw us driving about 12,000 miles and through 10 different States (in a car that we put a lot of money into to keep it on the road…and we suffered a car accident and a flat tire—two things we never had to face during our initial deputation). We were able to raise much needed financial support for the ministry and we were able to report to several faithful supporting churches. We also had some fun this summer as we visited King’s Island in Cincinnati, OH and Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, TN. I rode all the roller coaster and thrill rides we could, as there is not a lot of those kind of things here in Greece.

In July, we found out that Brandie was carrying our 2nd child!!! She has had a good pregnancy thus far…then, in September; we went to the doctor in Indiana to hear the heartbeat before we left for Greece. Brandie went into the office by herself for some testing and measurements. My mom, Emily, and myself were in the waiting room. The nurse came out and called us to see the ultrasound. Upon entering the room, I asked Brandie, “How does everything look?” Brandie responded by telling me to look at the monitor. I did and saw the little baby just lying there…then I saw something else. I’m not good at reading ultrasounds…but there was definitely something else on the screen. Then, I saw the SECOND child!!! I about fell over and the reality sat in that we have TWINS on the way. The due date is sometime in March and we do not know the gender of the babies yet; however, we were able to see that the twins are not identical.

In September, we took a couple of weeks to say goodbye to our friends and family, and then on September 28th, we boarded a plane back to Greece. We flew from Charlotte, NC. It was a 3-hour drive from East Tennessee and Emily puked on herself on the way to the airport. Our itinerary was to fly from Charlotte to Philadelphia and from Philadelphia straight to Athens. We left Charlotte late and landed in Philly 15 minutes before our flight to Athens. We had to transfer two different concourses, but we ran and made it…even though they were paging us over the intercom! We didn’t think our bags would make it because of the close connection…but they were the first on the belt at baggage claim in Athens!

We’re very grateful for all those who helped us this past summer. It was full of great memories and we’re looking forward to our next furlough!!!