Day One - Day of Travel

Packing Party

Finally landing in Guatemala

Trying to keep my composure while dealing with getting us rebooked

Well we finally arrived in Guatemala safe and sound (so did our luggage). After a VERY long day of travel, delays, and challenges. Our flight from Detroit to Houston was unable to land because of weather, so they wanted us to hold for an hour for it to clear, however our plane didn't have enough fuel. We ended up having to land in Shreveport and wait in the plane about an hour for the plane to refuel and gain permission to go to Houston. When we finally arrived there, we of course had missed our flight to Guatemala. When we tried to get rebooked we ran into some challenges. There was a flight at 1115am, and the next one at 730pm. Both were showing full :( So we were told we would have to split up. My fear of course were that some might make neither and then what??? So we got ourselves on standby and headed for the gate of the 1115 flight. We were told probably not, but he'd let us know once the plane was fully boarded. So we waited, stressed out a bit, and then we prayed. We so badly wanted to stay together, there were so many worries with splitting up.

So the plane was loaded, we went back to the counter, and we all made the flight. Yeah God!!

That hurdle was behind us, we were scattered on the plane but all on the same flight and hoped for the best for our luggage. When we arrived in Guatemala we were so excited to find everything made it with us! Then we walked out to look for our ride, but, no one was there with our sign. We waited a few minutes, talked about what to do, then a van arrived with our hotel written on the side. He seemed to know of us, and we decided to take the van.

We made it to our hotel, better late than never. We met the fantastic group of women we would be sharing this trip with and spend the next few hours going through all of the items we all brought with us and sorting them out by orphange we would visit. It was pretty crazy but so amazing and exciting too. Thinking about the next few days and how all those items will be used and will touch children's lives.

So we have been up since 3am, it's now 1030pm (our time, 830pm Guatemala time) and we are all pretty much exhausted.