getting here

I guess I'd better start at the beginning, for journaling purposes. Last week was completely and utterly nuts. You'd think that with this being our 10th move in 7+ years of marriage, we'd be pretty good at it by now. This move was unlike anything we've ever done before, though. It's all pretty much a blur now, and I'm glad those last two weeks before the move are over. They were filled with too many late nights, final preparations, sick kids, sick parents, last minute changes to our flight and housing arrangements, and a whole lot of stress.

While the company is incredible and does so much to take care of us, there was still an element of unknown that made certain decisions and preparations difficult. We relied on prayer and faith; something we are all gaining a lot of through this experience.

The day prior to our departure began with going to the Oakland Temple. The day couldn't have started any better and I gained a sense of peace and comfort as we embarked on this crazy journey. The rest of the day included:

- the last day of school for the boys

- a visit to the doctor's office with Lydia

- getting a speeding ticket

- turning in our house keys

- two more stops at Target

- sending off our van

- saying goodbye to friends

- and final packing of the suitcases.

I think I got about 4 hours of sleep that night. Our visas were completed on Thursday afternoon and arrived in San Francisco Friday morning via Fed Ex, just in time for us to catch our 11:00 am flight.

The flights went amazingly well. I started to panic as I was standing in line at the gate in Washington DC just prior to boarding our flight to Rio. I was waiting to talk to an agent about switching some of our seats around because the seats we had booked weren't all together. Matt was elsewhere with the kids, and I quickly found myself alone in the midst of a large group of people, primarily Brazilian, all speaking Portuguese. It hit me at that moment that I'm really leaving my world behind.

We were certainly a sight to be seen in the airport in Rio. It seems that Rio is a good place to be with kids. Apparently, if you are spotted in line with a stroller full of kids, you get to cut in front of everyone. While we were standing in two different (and long) lines for customs, some Brazilian airport official came and got us and took us to the front of the line. It was great. I wish I would have gotten a better picture, but I was trying to be discrete as to avoid drawing any more attention to us that we were already getting.

Here are our 4 carts piled as high as possible with 10 of the largest possible pieces of luggage, 7 carry-on bags, and 3 car seats. Three airport employees and Matt pushed the carts while I pushed the kids in the stroller out to our vehicles.

We got to our apartment and pretty much crashed for the next two days!