Goodbye Germany!

Just wanted to put one last blog on before I lose my guarenteed internet connection! There are places I can go to get internet once we are in TLF, but just in case we aren't able to this is it for us in Germany! Just over three years ago the story went something like this.

While spending a weekend in Utah with my parents we found a dinosaur museum so decided to stop. We had just seen the Flaming Gorge and weren't too far over the Utah border. The dinosaur musem was fun and towards the end my mom's cell phone rings. She had several missed calls! Family in Cheyenne were trying to get ahold of us becuase Elmendorf was looking for Zach! He called them from her phone and was informed our flight to Germany had been accidentally cancelled and there wasn't a way to get us back on it. We had one week left with family before heading overseas, but they assured us a new set of commercial ticksets were being taken care of and an itenerary would be emailed. The next morning Zach checked his email at the hotel computer and sure enough we had an iteneray! Disaster averted.......or so we thought.

Labor day 2006: My parents decided to park and go with us into the airport to help juggle the kids and luggage. I am so glad they did! We arrived four hours prior to our departure instead of only three hours like recomended. We waited to check in and was happy the line wasn't too long. Zach was then informed we were not booked on the flight our itenerary showed. We were still booked on the flight that was originally planned to Baltimore where we were to catch the military flight to Germany. We showed them our itenerary, but they said that it was never paid for so therefor never fully booked and now the flight may not have enough seats left!

We took our luggage,kids and parents off to the side while Zach went and dealt with the airline, air force and some customer service place. My parents fed the kids and entertained them on the escalators. I am not sure how many times Cody went up and down that thing! A little over two hours later they finally had a new flight plan arranged, but we had 30 minutes to catch our plane! we had to quickly say goodbye to my parents and run and I mean run to our flight. Anyone that has been to Denver knows you have to take a train to the terminals and such so it's not a quick ordeal and we still had security to get through as well! So if you have ever seen Home Alone and remember the part where the family is running through the airport, that was us. We each had a backpack, I was carrying Cody, Zach had his carseat and we ran! We made it to our plane, but they didn't have seats together and no time to ask people to move so we were scattered all over the plane. Cody was beside me, but Zach had to sit in the back with Tyler a few rows up. Ryan was o the side a few rows in back of me. It was insane!

Becuase of the mess we had no one to meet us at the airport, my luggage was lost and we were all exhausted! The Frankfurt Airport was under construction so finding the USO or anyone to speak english to ask took forever. We finally got a shuttle to Ramstein, thought we were going to die as the guy drove like a maniac in a big van full of people, but we had finally made it. So our journey began......

Now three years and three houses later we are happy we had the opportunity to come here. We did as much traveling as time, money and kids would allow. We would't turn down a chance to come back. Of course it would be much easier the second time! I believe that the Air Force may be the one giving you the orders, but Heavenly Father is really the one assigning them. Everywhere we have moved it has been for a reason. Sometimes that reason doesn't present itself until you are gone like our time in Florida, but others it's pretty evident from the begining. Our time here has given Cody the best teacher possible and I will really miss her! She has a been more than a teacher, she is a friend. I have once again learned I can do so much more than I thought. As a family we became closer. When you are so far away from family and things that are familiar and have so many trials where you just want to throw in the towel and say "I quit!" you learn to rely on each other more. Tyler has become even more mature and responsible than before and becuase of him I survived two more deployments. He is a great kid and I know he will do great things in the future. Ryan has had many struggles here, but I know he has grown a lot as well and he is taking this big adjustment as good as he can. We have had fun sightseeing and we have even enjoyed Zach's endless history lessons along the way! the kids weren't always as grateful as we went, but I know they will look back and remember these three years as some happy times!

So goodbye Germany! I can't say I'll miss everything about you, but you will be missed!