Santa Ana Home Sweet Home

I arrived safely in Honduras on time yesterday. I had to get up at 2:30 a.m. Matt and Nicole took me to Little Rock, leaving their apartment at 3:30. I had 3 pieces of checked luggage and 2 carry ons. Of course, I had to pay for that 3 rd piece, but I knew that in advance. Someone should have taken a picture of me with all that luggage. I do not know how, but none of my checked luggage was over 50 pounds. Everyone that handled it thought it would be, including the ticket agent at Continental in Little Rock. We put each piece on the scale, and the biggest one weighed exactly 50 pounds. All 5 pieces were packed as full as they could be. I left stuff that I really wanted to bring at both Nicole's and my mom's. I hope to get some of it in December. Unlike Marc's luggage, all of mine arrived with me. I panicked when I saw a customs agent going through a bag of the lady in front of me. He was taking everything out of her suitcase. Not that I had anything to hide, but if someone went through my luggage like that, I would never get it all back in those suitcases. Not to worry, I guess they were randomly selecting someone to do that to. Marc picked me up and we had errands to run. He was in a Dodge Dakota pickup. We had to put my luggage in the truck bed. Everywhere we stopped, we had to move all this luggage into the cab, go in take care of our business, come out and unload it all out of the cab back into the truck bed. Again, someone should have taken a picture.

After the errands, we headed to Santa Ana, which is now our home. I am glad to finally be here. Moving is never really over until the furniture arrive and you get your things into your house. I container is leaving the coast today. It should be here by the time we get back from language school. We are still living out of suitcases. At least, now, I don't have to find a hiding place for my clothes and suitcases when someone looks at the houses.

And my little house is small and crude. It is a cinder block house. We are going to stucco and paint the inside which will make it much better. The lighting is poor. I think I will be buying 75 watt light bulbs and lamps on my first trip to Tegucigalpa. A very pleasant surprise, I can flush my toilet paper. Can't do that in Tegucigalpa or at the mission house. We also are going to add on another bedroom and an office. Work will begin on that while we are at language school. I am looking forward to making this little place home.

Last night, I got hugs and kisses from 15 sweet little people before I came over to go to bed. I got off the plane with itchy, runny eyes and nose. I took two benadryl before bed. The benadryl, combined with being exhausted, rain on a tin roof and the coolness of the night sure made for some good sleeping.

This morning Marc and I have walked around the property and discussed the plans for enlarging our house.

Thank you all for your prayers and your words of encouragement.

Terri