The DEPARTURE

With the help of many great volunteers, 

ALMOST all of the generously donated items were loaded in the shipping container last week, including very precious cargo - jars of Grandma’s homemade peach jam! 

 That’s like liquid gold! :)  We will be praying for the container’s safe and timely arrival to the port in Ghana after a few months.  Meantime, we packed up our bags (13 suitcases and 9 carry-on pieces to be exact!) and said our good-byes to dear ones

and goodbyes to beautiful America

 and headed for the airport on Sept. 10th.  

God blessed our travels with a smooth check-in of all our luggage; no glitches with paperwork; timely departures; and opportunities to sleep on the plane (Zion slept a pretty good night’s sleep on the floor of the first plane and it wasn’t until the very end of the flight that the attendant noticed him and said he wasn’t allowed to do that, don’t ask me why - as a kid I always put a blanket down and slept on the floor while a brother or sister stretched out on the seats above).  

Havilah and Zion were cheerful big helpers (most of the time) 

and loved the escalators while Nile was just along for the ride

 and loved the airplanes! 

 If you look closely you can see him drooling over a big one he saw!  When we landed and finally got through the loooooonnnnnggggg immigration lines in Accra, Ghana, all the fatigue disappeared in the excitement of seeing beloved family and friends we had missed so much!!!  The kids ran around the airport lobby with their long-lost cousins and dear friends.  We wish we had pictures of that delightful reunion to post here but our phone (still probably need to get a real camera!) battery had died by that time.  We had a great night’s sleep and continued our journey to Kumasi the next day and in the next blog....