Sunday, Jan 1st. The day was finally here. Two years of planning and praying. What a day it turned out to be. We thought the hardest part was waking up at 4am to get to the airport by 5am. Well, it certainly wasn’t easy or fun to wake up to dave’s phone playing a horrible little tune, but as it turned out it wasn’t the roughest part of the day either (by the way, Dave’s phone could’ve woke us up with Julie Andrews singing “the hills are alive” and at 4am it would still be horrible). So, 5 am we are being chauffeured to the airport. Who knew Chris Baynum could be so pleasant at 5am. Thanks Chris! We knew our day was going to be interesting when 5 minutes after getting on the plane we were asked to briefly “de-board” the plane. A quick security check was done and then we were re-boarded, but this time we were joined by celebrity Nick Lachey. Coincidence that we had a security check right before he boarded? Only Nick knows. Anyway, moving on. The day continued getting more “fun” and it had nothing to do with a ex member from a 90’s boy band. Our plane arrived in Miami safely. About an hour later we discovered that Cleo had lost her passport. We had 5 hours before our plane left for Ecuador. The last place she remembered having it was on the previous plane. So, the ticket agent contacted the cleaning crew, nothing was found and the plane was already on it's way to North Carolina. Next step, lost and found for the whole airport. By this time we were all praying for the passport to show up and what plan B should be if didn't. Lost and found ..... no passport. The guy did suggest to go back to our arrival gate, because sometimes they bring them to the desk. Another delightful walk through Miami Airport. After explaining our predicament again, the supervisor called North Carolina, asking that the plane be searched again when it landed. More waiting. At 1:30 they were told that it was not on that plane. Plan B here we come. This involved Cleo and I Staying in Miami until Wednesday, which would be the soonest we could replace her passport and Dave and Austin going on to Ecuador. So besides the expense of staying a few more days, the change ticket fee, passport replacement fee, we were going to spend more than we had figured. Now we had to run to the rebooking counter and make sure Cleo and I could get our luggage back off the plane. While there and explaining our story one more time, Austin called and said they just announced Cleo's name over the intercom, asking that she immediately report to our arrival gate! No way, they found it!? We literally ran 20 gates (in my riding boots none the less). Yes it was true they found it, on the first plane, which was coming back to Miami! Only one problemo, at 4pm. Our plane to Ecuador was leaving at 3pm!!! Plan C: The Awesome supervisor, who at this point was totally emotionally involved, put us on Standby for the 7pm flight to Ecuador at no additional charge. She assured us there were plenty of seats and we would get on the plane all together. So we arrived in Ecuador a little later than planned, but at least on the same day (11:30 pm). Jehovah's spirit had to be at work, if nothing else just to keep my legs from giving out after running what felt like a marathon through the airport. Yesterday we took care of getting phones and finding the Kingdom Hall. This morning we were in the ministry in Old town. We walked in and out of stores, apartments, asking for English speaking. We even met a few Ecuadorian brothers and sisters. Quito is a busy, loud city with 2 million english speaking people living here. Most of the people are friendly and hospitable. Our bed and breakfast is on a quiet street, 2 blocks from the KH. We will be attending the meeting tomorrow evening. Oh, and the weather is perfect, hasn't rained yet.
The first few days, we were all dragging a little and had dull headaches. The adjustment to the higher altitude takes a few days. We meet for service at 8:45, which took us 40 minutes to walk to the first day. This morning it was raining so we took a cab. We also got to hop on the buses and go to bible studies with some of the other need greaters. 