We've thanked God for it so often since we've been home. It's the kind of trip that we never imagined taking, and I want to start by thanking all of our family and friends that helped us in one way or another- blessing us financially, watching kids while I undertook the challenge of packing all those bags, picking up random but necessary items at Target for me, praying faithfully over all the logistics of international travel with little ones, and of course our traveling companions who held little hands to cross streets, watched over sleeping babies, and took little girls on many trips to the airplane restroom while Steve and I rocked and soothed a sleepless baby by stuffing Gerber Puffs in her mouth. And thank you to those who bought us Gerber Puffs for the trip.
I also have to thank Matt and Rachel for falling in love and getting married. Not because we got a trip to London out of it, but because "Uncle Matt and Aunt Rachel" as a couple have already brought so much joy to our little family and we're thankful that Grace, Leah, Avery, and Jane have another beautiful example of love and marriage in their lives. Three thousand miles isn't too far away to have an impact for Christ in the girls' growing-up years! And I have to say that even before she was officially an Aunt, Aunt Rachel holds a very special place in Grace and Leah's hearts.
Without further ado, I present to you Day One:
Leaving our house for the drive to BWI airport. They were so excited that it was finally time to do what we've been talking about doing for so long... ride on an airplane to London!
The whole group of Americans before going through security! Every group shot turned out to be blurry, but you can make out everyone I think. My parents and paternal grandparents, my Mom's Aunt and Uncle, our former youth pastor and his wife, my Mom's sister and one of her boys, my sister April, and the six of us Deterdings.
While sorting baggage for checking in was a bit confusing, the journey through security was easy-- we were the only people there! One of many prayers answered. We also learned that a hurricane hitting England was holding things up, but we just missed having our flight delayed or re-routed.
We could see our plane being loaded with what we hoped was ALL of our baggage! My cousin Bradyn was a huge help with the girls!
Avery claimed a seat in the middle of the plane next to her Mom Mom, of course. We'd read library books all about airplanes and the city of London, so our precocious two-year old was prepared for everything. At this point it's about 9pm Baltimore time.
Jane spent the majority of the overnight flight looking over seat backs! Here she's saying hi before take-off to her great-grandmother, great-grandfather, and my cousin Bradyn.
The blessed hour or so of sleep that Jane got in her special baby seat. Before someone slammed an overhead compartment shut and woke her up. No, not bitter about that at all.
We arrived in London at 7:30 or so local time, which of course felt like 3:30am to us. We had to circle above Heathrow for an hour waiting for storm winds to die down... but of course that all happened on Day Two, so I'll leave that for the next post!
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