Goodbye ABQ hello Chicago

Yesterday we departed from Albuquerque at about 3:00 p.m. It is always bittersweet leaving family and the land of lovely green chile but in our hearts we know that God is calling our family to something bigger than ourselves. Having these experiences together really help us to rely on God and each other. Traveling in general is difficult with children but internationally, I feel like is a whole different ball game. For the first time since we have gone together I do not feel nervous or ill prepared. I have a peace that this is right and there should be no looking back.

Our plane ride was supposed to be about two hours and fifteen minutes but we ended up being on the airplane close to four hours due to delays. The kids did reasonably good, other than Elisabeth fighting her nap for the first hour and a half we were on the plane. They were both pretty antsy and hungry by the time we got off the airplane.

We are staying in Chicago until Monday. John's brother Joe, his wife Becky and their five children live here. Joe and Becky's oldest daughter Kate will be tagging along this year to help with the kiddos. Once we got off of the airplane Joe & Becky picked us up and we headed to Portillo's to get some dinner around 9:00. By the time we got home and got the kids in bed it was after 11:00.

It was a good practice round for traveling and airplanes for one day. The big flight is on Monday evening which will be nine hours. Thankfully a good chunk of that will be for the kids sleeping.
-Nichole

ps sorry about the picture formatting...I can't figure out what the problem is.