We're in Peru!

We got up at 4am on Wednesday morning, got to the airport at 5:30am, and our flight left at 8am. We prayed that all of our bags would be under the 50 pound weight limit. We even bought a special luggage scale for $10 at Target, but we were still concerned that it might not be accurate...but by God's grace it was! I think our heaviest bag was 47 or 48 pounds. Our flights were great. We arrived here in Lima around midnight, and finally arrived at our hotel around 2am. All of our 11 suitcases made it! We even got "red-lighted" in customs, but all they did was send the bags through this monstrous x-ray machine...no hand searches! It's the same timezone as MN (where we've been staying for the last four weeks with Gillian's family), so at least there was no jetlag to speak of.

Things here are going very well. Yesterday we got pictures taken for our visas, got copies of our passports notorized so we don't have to carry around the actual passport, etc. So, we're good! Today we looked at a possible apartment. It's in an absolute PRIME location for easier living. The floorplan is a little small, but it has two great little patios, and a lot of character. We saw another apartment that some single lady missionaries are living in just for an example of another floorplan, and the apartment is AWESOME, but the location would be challenging for our little family...no stores within walking distance, hard to get taxis, etc. We'll keep looking around in the coming weeks, but that first apartment in the great location really looks great to us. It's brand spanking new, and it's not quite done yet. We're going to look at a guest house tonight that's fully furnished and intended for new missionaries. It would be a great temporary home while we wait for the other apartment to be finished and look at other apartments too.

Justin's not feeling well, so that's kind of hard. He's going to take a break for the rest of today and hang out at the hotel with the boys. I'm going to go with our staff person and look at the possible temporary apartment this afternoon. Living in a hotel is more expensive and tough because we can't make our own meals. Alex (our first child) is picky eater #1, so we've been hitting all the fastfood places. The one upside is that almost all of them have really awesome indoor playgrounds. The temporary apartment is completely furnished and has a stocked kitchen, so we can cook for ourselves.

Soon we will have a home! Justin has been an awesome translator, and he's busy absorbing the city. He's been making calls back home to friends and family to let them all know we're safe, sound, and content (aside from Justin being a little under the weather). We have a staff person with us all day for the next week to help us get around. Once we find a place to live, we will start language school. Oh, and Alex starts school on Monday, and we looked at a possible preschool for Nathan. You should have seen all of these little Peruvian darlings swarm around Nathan's blonde self!! It was adorable. They had all sorts of questions for him, how old are you, what's your name, etc. It's hard to imagine letting our kids go to school, and we keep getting choked up over the idea of doing it so soon, but we drove by Alex's school and it looks great. He's excited about it, and it will offer some stability in our otherwise nomadic life right now. I think we'll wait a while for Nathan, though. K, I should go and join my family for a nap.

Blessings to the homefront!
Gillian