We are Here!!

We have made it safe and sound. Our flights were no problem at all, and we met some interesting people. On the first flight we sat next to this woman from Columbia who was in her mid 70s and was visiting her 8 children and 50 grandchildren all around the states. She was super nice, speaking to us in broken english, showing us words in spanish and always saying how important it was to learn spanish. I liked her a lot!

We got in at 11.30 about and were met at the airport by a guy who worked for the hostel we stayed in last night. It was so surreel leaving the airport and finally getting the picture. We are going to be here for so long!! I was all kinds of nerves. Actually, still am. Casey and Ethan were welcome faces at the hostel. Ethan heard us comming and stuck his head out of the door right as we pulled up. It was such a strange and wonderful site!

Today we are headed out to this volcano by Quilatoa and community surrounding it. We are going to for their carnival for the day too! Casey and Ethan has prettymuch planned everything for us for the first few days. It is a nice break from it all. I feel like I have done so much planning to get to this point, and now I am here and I don't need to do any planning for the first few days and I am LOVING life. We will be back Saturday or Sunday.

Okay well I am off and going to go explore a little more of this strange new life that I am starting.

With love.
E

Guess We're Leaving!

Leaving in the morning!! I hope I have everything together. It has been kind of crazy trying to get it all together, but everything worked out in the long run. I keep glancing around my room trying to make sure that I have everything together, but I think at this point in time, there is nothing more I can do. I just need to shut down my brain for a few hours and get some sleep, because we are leaving super early in the morning. With a flight that leaves at 8(ish) am, getting there at 6 means that we leave the house here around 5:30. So that is fun.

And with that, I sign off... next time I write anything, I will be in Ecuador! Keep us in your thoughts and prayers these next few days... I know we will need it and appreciate it!

With Love,
E

8 Days...

8 Days till I leave the country for the first time in 6 years.

It is hard to believe that it is almost here, but I am so ready and excited for it. Right now I just wish it was now! I can't really do any more planning than I have and just really want to go. There is no good in worrying over the things that I have been worrying about anymore, I'll just have to take it as it comes.

Stacie got back from Beyond a few weeks ago and in the short time she was here (before she visited Ohio and family) we got to sit down a few times and really talk about what we were looking to get out of this trip and it made me feel so much better about things. We had talked about the trip before she left, but I didn't buy our tickets until she had already left for Beyond, so this entire trip has been planned long distance. But she is a good reminder to me that we are going with open minds and we purposefully have not planned very much of this trip because we want to be open to what comes. Even so, we are lucky enough to be meeting up with our friends Casey and Ethan the first 5 days of our trip. And then a friend of mine knows some translator women who live in Quito who will be able to show us around too. We are being provided for before we even leave!

Okay, off to buy myself a watch...