Monday, May 20, 2013

Arrival in The DR Update....

Hello to everyone! We arrived safely in the Dominican Friday around 1:30. We left Huntsville at 6:40am~ Yes... we had to get up at 4am which made for a LONG day for all of us:) Thanks to my dad and Leonard Morris for carrying us to the airport in the wee hours of the morning....We had 9 check in bags and all of us had at least one carry-on. Needless to say we needed 2 cars to get us all to the airport~LOL! All flights went smooth. We were picked up by SCORE missionaries who carried us to the house we are renting during our stay.

We are staying in Juan Dolio, which is about 30 minutes from Santo Domingo. SCORE International has it's own hotel in Juan Dolio and we are about 1 mile down the road from it. There is a Country Club Golf course and Hotel and around it is a neighborhood of homes. SCORE also owns a home in this neighborhood and we were able to rent the house next door to it. This is SCORE's busiest season for groups coming on mission trips so we were not able to stay in their home because it is being occupied by groups during our length of stay. The man who rented the house to us is super nice and has been very accommodating. We have been given access the hotel nearby and their pool and exercise equipment. The kids are happy about using the pool:) The house we are renting is nice. It has 3 bedrooms, den kitchen and 2 1/2 baths. I'm still not quite settled in to the realization we are here for 40 days~ I'm sure it will hit soon enough. Brayden has started the countdown everyday....40 days to go:)

We went to Jumbo's which is like Walmart here on Saturday morning and loaded up with household cleaners, pots, pans, towels, and Food of course. The oven isn't working at the moment but the microwave has been put to good use for macaroni and cheese and ramen noodles:) All of the kiddos have adjusted well so far...Aubree has had a little bit of a harder adjustment. I think her ears were bothering her from the flight and she was up most of the night the first night and cried quite a bit. This is unusual for her. She also had a rough night last night. We are praying for a good night's sleep tonight!!

Today we went to Santo Domingo~it was Tommy's first experience driving in Santo Domingo. WE SURVIVED... Praise the Lord!! It is like driving bumper cars...you just see who sticks out their bumper the farthest and honks the loudest to see who gets the right a way...NO KIDDING!! You dodge motorcycles with sometimes a family of 5 on ONE and pray you don't tattoo them-LOL!!  We went to meet with our sweet friend, Sarah at CONANI. Unfortunately, the I-800 Immigration approval for the girls has not yet arrived to the US Embassy here, so were not able to get the girls today. The electronic file is now at the US Visa Center in New Hampshire waiting to be sent off to the US Embassy here. Once it gets here they will call us immediately and we will be able to go pick up the girls. We are very anxious to get them and our kids are having a hard time understanding why we cannot. We were able to get in touch with Senator Shelby today, to ask him if he could call the VISA center on our behalf to see if he can expedite the process... but as we all know it is in God's hands.


I guess that is all I have to report at the moment. Thank you all for your prayers....We couldn't make it without them! I will update you as soon as we know when we will get the girls! Love you all!!

Heather


2 comments:

  1. This is Awesome, Heather!!! Thanks for creating the blog to keep everyone informed. I'm so excited for you and your family. Be safe and I will continue to keep you all in my thoughts and prayers. God really is an awesome God.

    Stacey Bell

    ReplyDelete