Sunny and Breezy in Florida

We're here! Here's how the journey looked:

Left our house in Brazil, Tuesday, March 27:

After showering, lunching, one child throwing-up her lunch all over her clean hair and body, and having showered her again....

We left in what was thought to have been an air-conditioned van that Edil had hired to take the four of us, Edil's sister and niece to help, two cats in a cage, 8 bags, 3 carry-ons, and a stroller. Wrong! Was not air-conditioned. It was broken, the driver informed us. Which meant windows down, street dust and grease layered on our fresh clean faces and hair, hair blown around, dirty lungs, traffic noise, etc. along the 1-1/2 hour ride to the airport. I was not happy at all. One of the cats threw-up along the way. Was nice of her to do it by the door of the carrier so it was an easy clean-up later.

We were so thankful for Edil's sister and her daughter and the van driver to be there to help us with the kids, cats and bags. What a blessing! I don't know how we would have managed without them. American Airlines got us through the line easily by bringing us and our stuff to a special counter. It took us about 30 minutes to check-in (after getting to the counter!) It was tough walking away from the kitties as their carrier left the check-in counter. We said good-bye to them and wished them a good and safe flight.

Had pizza with our entourage before thanking them and saying our good-byes. We were blissfully ushered through security and passport control because we had kids with us. We were at our gate before we knew it, and on our plane. Leaving Sao Paulo at 9:20 p.m. I had to do what the vet told me. He said to check-on the cats and forget about them while we flew. I did think of them at times during the flight wondering how they were handling it all.

The kids did very well on the flight. After their meal, they both fell asleep for the entire flight. One peed their pants while asleep. I forgot to put on the diaper for that not to happen. When we arrived in Miami, I said that it'd be O.K. as mommy would quickly get some fresh clothes out of the suitcase (I had meant to bring some in the carry-on but in the rush of leaving I had forgotten!) when we got to the baggage claim. I was informed by thus child that it was, "O.K. mommy, it's all dry now!" That gave me a chuckle.

I couldn't believe the cats were sitting there in their cage next to the baggage claim area before we got there. They were perfectly fine! Our bags were all there already as well. We hired someone to help us carry everything. We were not made to have our bags inspected. Our friend was there WAITING for us those wee hours of the morning when we arrived. We got everything loaded into his double cab truck and off we went! So smooth. So easy!

The rest of the day was a bit more difficult trying to find a kennel for the cats to stay in while our house is being made ready for us. I found a suitable place at the end of the day. It was an exhausting day, but we were and are so thankful for prayers that went up for us as it went a lot more smoothly than I could have imagined.