Home Again

Hello everyone. It is a little thing, but we have finally topped the site hit count for October! In October we recorded 262 visits to this website and we exceeded that number this month with 270 visits so far.

It is 8am here on the Wet Coast -- which, by the way, is still quite wet. Barely a week ago, we were still "Down East" visiting with Cheryl's parents and the atmosphere was dry and cold. We're talking -15c cold. Compare that to our relatively balmy temps of just over 0c / 32f...

We are happy and grateful to be home -- though the children miss the attention from proud grandparents and doting aunts. Our trip home was somewhat harrowing. We thank you all for your prayers for our safety. God took care of us very well despite the many twists and turns of circumstance as you will read next.

Our itinerary was changed a time or two thanks to snowstorms, delayed flights, and the general confusion and mayhem of the holiday rush. We began our trip expecting to have American Airlines take us from Portland, Maine to Boston, Mass. to Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas to Vancouver, BC. In Portland we found out that flights in and out of Dallas were cancelled due to a snowstorm. We were rerouted by American Airlines to fly Portland, Boston, Chicago. From Chicago, TWA would take us to St. Louis and from St. Louis to Vancouver. In Boston, we were rerouted again. This time, TWA would take us directly from Boston to St. Louis, skipping Chicago entirely.

Later on I found out how blessed we were to have been rerouted away from O'Hare. If we had flown through O'Hare, we might still be there today!

On the first leg of our trip Melissa regurgitated her breakfast onto her new LL Bean fleece jumper. On the second leg of our trip, we missed our flight, lost our box (see previous post), and had to trek from one end of Boston's Logan airport to the other. On the third leg of our trip we almost missing our connection again -- that after sprinting about half a mile through the airport in St. Louis, each of us carrying a diaper bag and child! All in all it was an adventure to write home about.

My internal clock has readjusted to our timezone; as has Melissa's. Michael and Cheryl, however, are still not sleeping with any regularity. Michael seems to be continuing his incredible growth spurt. He refuels pretty much every 90 to 120 minutes. Cheryl consequently has not had much sleep or recovery time.

We are mostly unpacked now. The 3 large duffels that the airlines did NOT lose have been emptied and their contents distributed to the appropriate places. Cheryl tells me we need another shelf in the children's room: this to accomodate the mountain of cloth diapers we now seem to possess. Debbie's "hand-printed" picture frame now occupies a (safe) place of honor beside our wedding photo atop Cheryl's computer station. The jolly-jumper has been installed in the doorway to the children's bedroom. The toddler reading software has NOT been installed on the P75. I simply haven't had the energy to do the installation.

Groceries need to be got, but again, by the time 6 o'clock in the evening rolls around, it has felt like 9pm and time to get everyone to bed.