My Surprise Visit!

On November 17th, the kids and I boarded an airplane and headed across the ocean toward the USA! My hubby wasn't able to make this trip with us but he sent us off with his blessing and good wishes (and lots of prayers that I would survive travelling for 14+ hours on an airplane with two babies!). I was so excited to see my family. It had been a year and a half since I had been home. The fun part...nobody knew we were coming except my brother and his wife! It was so fun and the suspense was almost too much!

Flying over Greenland

We made it and the kids did so well on the flight. They even slept for the last 3 hours as we flew from Newark to Minneapolis...bliss! I was, however, VERY happy to hear the captain say that we would be landing in good ol' Minnesota in 20 minutes. I was tired and SO ready to see my family.


Matt and Beth took us out to eat and we went to Cabella's. Mariah loved it.



I loved it too...the taxidermy is quite stunning and realistic. Though I have never actually seen a pair of lions attacking a water buffalo in real life before, I felt as if I had after this...Once we arrived at my parent's house, Matt and Beth went in and said that they had gotten something heavy and needed help bringing it in (uh...thanks matt). So out comes my dad who opens the back door only to find us in the back seat. He was totally stunned. Then we went in and stunned my mom too. It was great! Later that day my sister, Mindy, came by as well and the stunning continued (it was her birthday so that made it even more fun)! Mariah was trilled to see her cousins again and it was Micah's first time meeting most of them.

(Mariah looks a bit jet-lagged in this one)

The timing was such that I was able to join in on a concert that they had commited to playing for the bank Christmas party. It felt sooooo good to be singing with them again. Ahhhh...heaven!

(practice session)

We did a LOT of hanging out with the cousins. It is great to watch them get aquainted with one another. I think they will all grow up to be great friends.

I feel so blessed to be able to actually sit in my beautiful sister's house instead of just seeing it all through Skype. It feels like a dream! God is so good.

...to be continued.