U.S.A...

Praise the Lord we have made it to our first destination...McAllen, Texas. We left Cuauhtemoc yesterday morning at 9:30 a.m. (this included loading the entire van, doing a last minute clean and mop of the house, and saying goodbye to Tanya, Samantha and Hilda). We all shed tears, including the children...they were very, very sad to say goodbye to our friends, our home and our city...it was very special to see them having become so attached to our life there (we walked into the local grocery store to grab a few items for the trip and everyone's eyes and faces were red and blotchy from all the crying...must have been quite the sight).

We got across the border in 45 minutes and by 5 p.m. we had arrived at our hotel in Fort Stockton. We had a reasonable night...what can you expect in a jam-packed hotel beside the freeway? This morning we got up at around 6:30 (awake from 5:00 a.m.) and by 7:30 we were at McDonald's for breakfast and by 8:15 we were on the road...and I mean on the road...the I-10 has a speed limit of 80 MPH so let's just say that our old '96 van was pretty much pinned...77 MPH humming down the road. We made great time to San Antonio and stopped for lunch around 1 p.m.

(We have been looking for license plates...we now have Hawaii checked off...)

We have been in "culture shock" mode most of the day today...when we stopped at a Rest Stop along the way the kids ran out of the van and were hooting and hollering about the "green grass" and the big trees...they liked being able to throw the T.P. into the toilet too, not having to chuck it into the garbage can. Sandy and I are also dealing with seeing all the "wealth" and so on...not to used to that in the last several months...



Then we headed south to the Rio Grande Valley and arrived here at our destination at 5 p.m. It was so good to see our friends here and they have put us up in an awesome Guest Home...These friends are folks that were missionaries down in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, together with Sandy when she was down there back in the mid-90's...we had lots of catching up to do with them.
Tomorrow we are doing something touristy...going to South Padre Island all together for the day...the forcasted temp is 27 Celsius (80 Fahrenheit) so we will enjoy that for sure...the kids are so pumped about being able to see and go into the "ocean." We will take lots of pics I'm sure...

(Can you say "road trip?")

Anyways, we are bushed so are off to bed and hoping for a better sleep...


Thanks so much for all your prayers...the Lord is taking such good care of us...

Gerald