43 Hours Later...
We made it to Dakar! After 43 hours, and way too many delays to even mention- we are here. I can not thank you enough for your prayers for us during travel. We left our house at 4am on Thursday and drove about an hour to the airport. Both girls stayed awake- so they were just in lovely moods by that afternoon. :) We made it to Brussels only to find out that our flight to Dakar would be delayed 3 hours and that was just the beginning. Although we were inconvenienced and annoyed, I had a supernatural peace the entire time and I know that is was the Lord. Once we finally took off and were in flight, about an hour into it they announced there was a technical difficulty and we would be returning to Brussels to see if it could be fixed. Oh the joy. Actually, it was a blessing in disguise because the mood Bailey was in I was wanting OFF THE PLANE NOW. She was an absolute bear that one hour of the flight. Anyway, after landing and sitting on the plane (more joy) for about 45 minutes they announced that we would all have to stay the night and we would fly the next day (Friday). There were many Africans on the flight of course and it got loud after that announcement. Mine and Cerys' eyes were as big as saucers during all that commotion. :) I was talking to my mom on Marc's mobile phone during that time and I'm sure her eyes were big too :) Anyway, they put us in a NICE hotel- Crowne Plaza 5 stars y'all! We were like a bunch of hillbillies walking into that lobby. They gave us dinner, but by that point Bailey was beyond anything I've ever seen and so I left Cerys and Marc in the restaraunt and Bailey and I sat on the hotel room floor while she thrashed about and screamed and got it all out of her system, then she stopped as quickly as she had started, got up and looked at me and then gave me a hug and was happy as could be. Whatever.The next morning, after more delays that I won't even go in to we got back to the airport and were blessed enough to go back through the process of checking our bags in and going through security- we got sit for 5 or so more hours. Bailey and Cerys ran around the airport like the owned it and I didn't really care. There was a small chapel upstairs near where we were sitting and we jokingly talked about going in there and laying hands on Bailey to pray for her. Instead we just did it right there on the benches. We finally left Brussels and 7 or so hours later we made it to Dakar. Oh, and it was not on our intinerary but we made a stop in Banjul, The Gambia to let people off and more people on. After 6 hours, we stopped in Banjul and sat on the plane while they "cleaned" it and loaded more passengers. By this point we are just laughing because it seemed funny and we were too tired to be mad. Bailey did so well on that long flight, we did have a few episodes of explosive fits, but over all she was rather calm and that was totally super-natural y'all- that was your prayers! We got to the airport in Dakar and well, that is just something I don't really have the words for right now. Although hot and smelly come to mind. We were at the end of a very long line for passport control I guess (?) and a "police" man came and said something to Marc and he put us up at the front of the line. What a blessing that man was. I did feel bad for the people still in line, it didn't quite seem fair, but at this point in our journey I wasn't too bothered about being fair.So, anyway, we are here. Today we've already been out the see the ocean, which is not far at all and we got to see the house that Marc grew up in and it was a sweet, emotional time for us. I got all teary when we drove up because I'm just that way- but having heard about this place for 11 years and finally getting to see it was really cool. It's warm here, but feels great and the girls are filthy as could be, but who cares!My favorite quote from Cerys so far was last night coming from the airport, it was dark, but you could see the poverty and dirt and I leaned down all sweet in her face and said "Baby, what do you think about Africa?" She just stared out the window and said, "WHAT is this place Momma?" We all cracked up!More to come I'm sure...Oh, and if you ever get to fly Brussels Airlines...don't.