We're Here! Quito Arrival                                

We landed Monday night about 11:20 pm after watching the gold glow of Quito grow closer and closer out the plane window. It was a big but blessed day.

I'm sure you were praying with us as we hopped from one continent to another. Here's how God paved the way:

Check-in: The man who checked our 12 suitcases in at United Airlines was so flexible... Not fussing if a bag was over a few ounces and letting me add to bags that were underweight.

Security - boy did we give them a workout! They dug into 5 bags but the worker there was very kind and we came early so no problems there either.

Flights went well. Children did well.

Arrival - we anticipated an hour plus going through immigration and customs. We were in the back of the plane and even had to stay a little longer due to a light-headed passenger but when we walked into the terminal, a greeter had started a new line through immigration and waved us into this much shorter line. Wow.

Baggage claim = all 12 made it intact. (Thank you to everyone who shared luggage with us!) We needed 3 luggage carts!

Customs: the airline was out of the custom forms they ususally hand out on the plane and immigration didn't give us one either. We wondered how this would work out but all the other passengers were in the same boat. The lines through customs snaked past double the area usually alloted for them. Then, suddenly, they sped up. An official waved us all by without asking for the customs form. Our bags rolled right through the xray machines and we were out of the airport in less than an hour. Incredible.

Jay has never had an international-travel day go so smoothly. We thank the Lord. We thank you for releasing his power through prayer.


Tuesday

Arriving from the airport... we snagged about 4 hours of sleep before we were up to grab breakfast and go get in line to complete our visa process. Although it took 3 hours, that also went smoothly.

We returned to a friend's home to catch up on sleep, then had lunch and I, Lynnelle, went shopping at MegaMaxi (what a name!) to stock up our home and get items not available in Shell. That was quite a shopping trip! Followed by another nap.

I had pictures ready to share with you but the PC and the camera are not communicating tonight. I will try to add them tomorrow.

So we are doing well. The kids wanted to head to Shell today to go play with and meet their friends. We load up 9am Wednesday morning for the 5-hour drive. We are sharing a mini-bus with the Barton family. They also have four kids, so do a little addition:

12 Allison bags
16 Barton bags
12 grocery bags
6 Allisons
6 Bartons
= = = = = = =
Quite an adventure!

We'll let you know how it goes. We probably won't have internet access in Shell for a day or two but then we'll be back with an update and hopefully some pictures. Until then, God bless each of you. Thank you for blessing us by supporting this ministry.

Buenos noches,
Lynnelle for the Allisons