From Minnesota to Mexico: The Great Adventure Begins

Well, here we are! All of us are very happy to be here after our long day of traveling. Leaving our house at 4:30am, we drove off to the airport, arriving quite early, as there is very little traffic at that time of day! After checking in and making our way through security, we found our gate and waited. Then we boarded and had a nice, uneventful flight to Harlingen, TX.
When we arrived, we experienced our first surprise. Budget, who we rented our van through, was no longer in the airport. Thankfully they have a shuttle, and Dad and Mr. Housman went to retrieve the van. Meanwhile the rest of us waited outside with all the luggage, soaking in the 68 degree temperature. Once the van arrived, we packed in the luggage and ourselves, and were off to McAllen to shop Sam’s Club and Lowes for the last necessary items. We met up with Mr. DeHoyos at a mall, and stopped for lunch before the shopping began. Of course the shopping took much longer that expected, but finally we had everything and were off for real. The next stop was the border, which took us quite some time to maneuver. However, we finally made it through and we began the eventful drive.
All of us girls, Kelsey, Breezy, Zelina, and myself, sat in the back seat of the van, with boxes upon boxes of stuff packed in front of us, at the top of which was a blender we had purchased for the DeHoyos’. Needless to say, driving in Mexico is quite different from driving in the US. Therefore, if we turned or swerved unexpectedly, which happened quite often, the massive stack of stuff in front of us would shift and begin to avalanche. Our job was to catch it before it did so. The blender, on top of everything else, was the most troublesome. Breezy ended up with a full time job, holding the blender in place with her feet. All in all it was a long drive, but hardly boring.
Arriving at the DeHoyos’ home, we were welcomed as only they can welcome, and given a fabulous feast, even if it was 9:30. It was so good to finally be here, and so fun to see such good friends again. After a nice visit, we all headed off to the hotel with only one thought in our heads, how to get into bed and asleep as fast as we could! On the way, Doug announced to us all that he had been up for nineteen hours.
The Lord was so good to us, guiding our paths and bringing us here safely. It wasn’t exactly our desired time frame, but it was His, and so we are content. Today we are planning out our work for our time here, making massive amounts of potato salad and chocolate chip cookies for an American meal for the church here, and regrouping. We are all excited to see what this time will hold, whatever else it may be, I am sure it will be amazing…

~Jeanie