October 28, 2009

Let me really quick summarize our traveling yesterday…

We made it to bed by midnight for our flight that left at 6am. Which means it was mandatory to be at the airport by 4am. We made it there no problem, however troubles arose when we were checking in with the woman at the ticket counter. The good news was our luggage was free (versus over 300 dollars the first time we moved here!), the bad news was they were giving us a hard time about bringing our dog. First the woman told us that our carrier was too big to bring on as a carry on. Fine, we can check her we thought. She was okay with that except she insisted that Sugars’ crate be tall enough so she can stand up and turn around with no problem (Something about animal cruelty or such). She was not cramped in it, but she had to hunch over a tiny bit when she stood. The woman would not budge and told us unless we were able to show her a different crate it would not be possible to bring her. So Travis’ mom turned around and drove all the way back to the airport to pick up our dog. Travis told her she could keep her or sell her but we were not allowed to bring her. Of course you can assume that we were VERY irritated at this point. It’s hard when times like these make you frustrated and you try so hard to not be rude. So as Travis was coming back from giving his mom our puppy I told the counter woman that we aren’t just vacationing to Punta Cana, but we live there. And by her not allowing us to bring her we have to give her up. Well when she heard that her whole attitude changed. She told us to bring her back and as long as we don’t mind the “cruelty” to her, that they would do it. So in the end it all worked out, but boy was it unnerving, ESPECIALLY since we were on 3 hours of sleep and it was 4am. ☺

Our flight went well… no problems. Our missionary friend picked us up from the airport and as soon as we got on the road to head home we witnessed a minor car collision. The scary part was what proceeded to follow. The two drivers had the road blocked so we couldn’t pass and one of them was clearly furious. He got out of his truck with a steel pipe in hand, and another man following him, also holding onto a pipe. They rushed over to the other car and began beating it and trying to drag the driver out. The driver managed to speed away, and we were able to creep around the chaos. It wasn’t a very comforting situation, no was it the kind of welcome home scenario I was thinking of… ☺

So besides that…

We are here! We slept in our new apartment last night for the first time and it is wonderful! What a difference a nicer home makes in your attitude and perspective of a place. I know it sounds like I’m spoiled, but being 1000’s of miles away from my family AND living in a third world country it more difficult that you might imagine. So, it is nice to have a clean living environment, somewhere that you can feel safe in.

Travis and I finished unpacking our entire assortment of luggage to make our apartment look and feel better. Travis already began putting together a 2000 piece puzzle, he LOVES puzzles! Now it’s just all the little things that will take time to make it “home-ier”.

This morning Trav and I had much needed time in the Word together. We read many encouraging verses in Psalm 50-55 (Pslam 55:22 in particular is awesome!). I was pleading to the Lord to help us with the rest of the steps for our business to come to fruition and to obtain the proper permits. (There’s nothing that will wear out your knees from praying more than being completely broke and knowing that bills are just a few days away from needed payment.) We are focused and driven to continue this process, with the Lord directing our steps. We believe that He will meet our needs and light our paths of where to go.

Sometimes the Lord is slow to answer prayers, and sometimes He works speedily! Today I got to witness his favor on our lives and aid in this journey first hand. Let me explain… Today we also hung out with a Dominican friend of ours. Him and his wife have been such a huge blessing to us. They have played key roles in introducing us to others who have aided our process of business. We were explaining to them our plight regarding suffering for a few more months and forking out even more money to be completely independent, or whether we should work underneath that Dominican whom we were originally going to work with (who is also requiring us to give him 50% of our earnings). His wife was thinking for a while and thought that we should meet with Club Caribe’ and be a sub-contractor for them. In this case they would market our flying boat to all 50 hotels in Punta Cana AND provide transportation for the tourists to our location. We would negotiate a price with them, they would mark it up for them to make a profit and we would be set. We could work under all of their permits (while still continuing to get ours) and keep more of our earnings AND have tons of advertising. She is currently setting up a meeting with us and Club Caribe. Please pray that we are able to land a contract with them, it would be a HUGE blessing!

Skype us or facebook us! We love you all and miss you tons!
-D&T0