Sunday, January 3, 2010

Rich Times!!


On the tails of our Nashville trip we drove home, washed clothes and both worked a few days. Then we headed to Dallas and spent the night with John and Charlene Wallace. They are long-time friends from Bryan/College Station and are parents of missionaries and understand all that our hearts are engaging in. We left our car there and they drove us to the airport. What a blessing. It was very cold and drizzling when we left Dallas.

We flew into DC and Hannah and Jason were ready to treat us to a metro ride. Jason's apt. is directly above a metro station and that was wonderful. We enjoyed an Amtrak trip over to Baltimore and saw lots of snow. At 4:20am Christmas morning we took a hotel shuttle to the airport and off we flew to Miami. During many hours of layover in Miami, we did all kinds of things to keep the cost down, flying from Baltimore was one of them. During our layover we slept, played cards, acted silly in the airport, and ate Chinese food for breakfast. Lots of fun and lots of tired moments. We arrived in Lima much later than expected because our Miami flight kept getting pushed back. (We did get 3,000 pts. from American Airlines for the delay) We got in bed around 3:00am, Dec. 26th. The next days were full of laughing, playing, cooking, eating, and just plain old family time. The six adults enjoyed a great conversation stemming from the two books, For Women Only and For Men Only, by Shaunti and Jeff Feldhahn. Great reads!!

Our only regret (other than more time with the kids and grandkids) is that we did not get to visit with the whole Lima Team. Time was just too short. We did enjoy an evening of talking with Mark Clancy. Daniel and Jason got to have a morning of prayer with the guys and Jason enjoyed some soccer on Monday night with the group. We tried to take it all in!! God is gracious to us always!!


Hannah, Jason, Daniel and I headed back to DC and enjoyed some time at the Smithsonian and the Korean, WWII, and Lincoln Memorial on New Year's Eve. We found a neat bakery and a used book store before the night was gone. Hannah and Jason had dinner out and celebrated the coming new year on the rooftop of Jason's apt. Daniel and I stayed in and watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ~~~ think we are getting really old. Jason was the perfect guide on the metro!!
All together we had 6 flights, 2 Amtrak rides, walked, rode the metro several times, drove in Lima taxis, and a hotel shuttle bus....we are learning to travel. And I guess with Hannah moving to DC in May after her marriage to Jason all of these skills will do us well both in Lima and DC!!




We have left our Lima kids in Lima and dropped off Jason in DC, Hannah has flown back to Tulsa for her last semester and we are settling back into Abilene!! Our hearts are full of memories!!

2 comments:

The Driskells said...

Wow! What a wonderful and crazy trip. So glad you were able to spend the holidays with your kids. You have an amazing family!

We miss you!
: ) Kara

The Frenches said...

I loved catching up yesterday and so pleased to hear of your beatiful trips and time with each other! God's grace and blessings are beautiful! We pray your family has a wonderful 2010 full of God's Peace and Joy!!