I'm here! I'm here!

Sorry for the days of silence but while the family had a good transition to the USA, the computer did not and had a partial hard drive failure as soon as we arrived in Michigan.

Thank you for all the prayers for our travel and transition. During our two days of travel we knew that any delays needed to occur on the first day and not the second if we were to arrive at the funeral home in time for the visitation for my grandmother.

Thankfully our travel delays did occur on the first day. We arrived to the airport early with no road blocks and then waited for the MFI plane which arrived late. Another praise is that although the plane was late the airport did not close at 1 p.m. so that we could still load up and leave for the USA.

The next delay occurred when a strong thunderstorm beat us to Fort Pierce by a few minutes forcing a U-turn as we flew south to West Palm Beach to clear customs and wait for the weather to clear. Once we did arrive in Ft. Pierce we hopped in a rental car and headed North to Orlando.

Wednesday morning we continued our trip with the unexpected experience of seeing the space shuttle
Endeavor being piggy backed by looking out the windows of the plane as we prepared for take off. Travel proceeded smoothly allowing us to arrive with the rest of the family at the funeral home on time.

Grandma's funeral celebrated her faith and family. While we will miss her I mostly felt greatly blessed for the many years of memories I have as well as the great blessing that my children knew 6 of their great grandparents.

Friday Cory and the kids visited the local library, signed Eli up for the PSAT's and visited his folks while I traveled with my folks for a doctor's appointment in Ann Arbor.

Saturday Eli, Grandpa TerAvest and cousin Taylor participated in the Michigan's Youth hunt but unsuccessfully. Sunday we enjoyed three generations sharing church-the only Sunday that we will not share in the service about how the Lord is working in Haiti.

Monday we took Anna to the orthodontist for what we thought would be one appointment but it turned into three as her doctor works to fit in the necessary testing and treatment around our busy schedule. So we saw them before lunch, after lunch and when the next appointment would not work with our trip to New York he pushed his staff to set her up to receive a 'bridge' on her lower teeth next week.

Then we dropped off Anna, picked up Eli and headed off to a Christian college fair. While Eli will not graduate until 2015 we decided to take the opportunity not knowing if we would have the chance again.

Tuesday-fit in a late celebration of Eli's 15th birthday with my family. Wednesday we enjoyed the Harvest Festival at the Veterans Home with Cory's Grandpa Warren.  Following this Eli, Anna and I took in a couple hours of art in Grand Rapids at Art Prize while Cory took the computer in for repair and then picked some late sweet corn. Yum!

Yesterday night we enjoyed learning more about Missionary Flights International at a banquet in Grand Rapids. Our mail and cargo for 14+ years arrive in Haiti through MFI and we enjoyed thanking their supporters and giving a first hand account of the great support we receive through MFI.

Thank you again for continuing to check the blog and sorry for the period of silence. I hope soon to be able to add some pictures from the last week.  Enjoy the last few days of September!