Our Trip Out...

...was a little stressful, crazy, and exhausting, but it was good too!!  We're very thankful for the Lord's protection and provision and bringing us safely here.  Thank you to everyone for their prayers.  What a blessing!  Well, since it is just Thursday and we only got here yesterday, you should be impressed that I'm posting so soon. :)  I think I've almost broken a record!!  Ha ha...  Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pictures!!
Saturday

We prepare to embark in a VERY stuffed van...

The back

Yay!  Here we go!

On the way out of town, the "O's" took us out to Cherry Berry for Seth's birthday!  Thank you guys!

 Seth got a new army lego set

"O" and Cochran kids picture

We were supposed to make it to Arkansas that night, but the Lord had other plans.  Providentially, we ended up needing new tires (daddy had just put new ones on 8 months ago!) and by the time we got them, it was late, so we ended up staying the night with the "O's".

 Who doesn't belong in this picture?!  Knox is so cute!

 The "O's" had a sign up for Seth

Checking the route

Sunday

I got to drive some!

Crossing the Mississippi River

Memphis! 

(you can barely see the sign in the distance)

An all important stop...

It was a long day...

...but we had fun songs to keep us awake and a story on CD read by Victoria Botkin called "A Bride Goes West."

Monday

 The kids were enthralled by the pancake maker at the hotel we stayed in

 Sabrina and Shenandoah

 Mommy and Sienna

Appalachian Mountains - here We Come!!!

 For lunch we ate in Lexington VA at the "Joyful Heart Cafe"

 Ready to eat!

 I think Shenandoah enjoyed her food

Sayer and Seth

 Stasia, Seth, Sayer, and Shenandoah

We were able to see Stonewall Jackson's grave site - that was so neat!

 Graves over looking Lexington

This was an interesting marker

 This is the original site of General Jackson's grave

 This is the church where he taught Sunday school

 Lexington is such a pretty and quaint little town

Countryside

More countryside

Finally a patch of blue sky

Foggy again

We saw a lot of this (road, mountains, etc.)

 That night we stayed with some old friends that mommy and daddy knew before I was born!

 They had a gerbil that the kids were very interested in

 Nelson and the gerbil

They got to give it a treat

 They acquired a stray dog...

 ...and Nathan and Adrian decided to give it a bath!

The dog certainly needed it!

Much cleaner!!

They found the dog's owner the next morning

 Ms. Kristi is a nurse and was able to take mommy's stitches out from the cyst she had removed last week

Tuesday...

Was crazy!!!  After getting around that morning and visiting with our friends, we had quite the adventure!  Between dropping our van off at long term parking at a base about a 1/2 hour away from the airport (getting on the base was a challenge in itself because every gate we tried was closed!  Finally someone helped us), renting a van and switching all of our luggage over, going to the airport and finding a place to park, barely making it for the space a call only to find out that they had plenty of room and they weren't doing one and also finding out that the flight was leaving much earlier than we thought!, racing through the airport, unloading the luggage, dropping off the rental van, barely getting our bags checked in time, being almost the last ones to go through security, and then only having about three minutes to spare before boarding!  Wow!  We were looking forward to the 8 hour flight!!! :)  We are thankful for the Lord's grace though as we certainly couldn't have done this without Him and He answered our prayers by letting us get on a flight on Tuesday!

Ms. Kristi, Ms. Gayle (another old friend who brought breakfast that morning), and Mommy

 Hey! Mommy actually taught Ms. Gayle something on the iPhone!!
(neither one of them are very good with electronics :)

 Visiting

 The kids had a lot of fun with their dogs!  Aren't they funny?!

 Through the airport

 Boarding the plane - yay!!!
This was the first time Sienna down had flown - they were excited!!

 Sayer and Stasia

 Sabrina and Seth

 Shenandoah

 They served dinner at about 10:30 - it was so good to eat!!  We hadn't eaten lunch or dinner that day because we were too crazy!

 Above the clouds

It's still hard getting used to the time difference

We landed at 4:30 in the morning our time, but it was 10:30 Germany time!

Breakfast right before landing

(Sayer got to switch with Stasia to see the landing)

 Germany from the air

Daddy picked us up - it was so good to see him again!!!

Cheers (goodbye in German) for the night then! Next up (hopefully tomorrow) will be a post about our first couple of days here...

~Savannah