And we're off !!

I got absolutely no sleep! I kept looking at the clock and ended up deciding to just stay awake. I had to get up at 2:30 to take a shower and get to the airport by 4am for my 6am flight. Well with about 6" of snow on the ground the plane did not takeoff until about 7am. First they had to rinse off all the snow then they put an anti-ice spray all over the plane. The takeoff and landing were fine. When I got to the airport I was one of the first people there and went ahead and weighed my luggage. The limit was 2 checked luggage at 50 lbs and a carry on at 40 lbs. I had to move a few things around but that is exactly what I had!
I finally got to Houston an hour late. Vanessa and Christy were waiting for me at the gate. Whew! What a morning!
The flight was crammed packed. Vanessa and Christy sat one seat up and over from me. Vanessa is so funny and has some crazy luck! She needed to go to the bathroom and ended up opening the door on someone going to the bathroom! LOL! TWICE she did that on the same flight. She was so embarrassed!
The flight was good but crowded. When we landed we noticed how great the airport looked. They remodeled and have really improved it in just a year. Vanessa luck strikes again! Her luggage did not show so we had to leave without it. ALL her clothes, her birth family gifts and most of the CHF gifts she had were in there. The airline said they would deliver it to her in the morning. Sure, Right! Panajachel is a 3 hour drive from Guatemala City.
I was all excited to go shopping before we headed to Panajachel to spend some of the left over money on the CHF Christmas party when I was told we were to pick up a little girl that has heart problems from the hospital and bring her back to Pana with us. We waited fro the girl to come out then found out she had to have more tests and had to stay another night. We ended up going to the store after all and picking up several things before we left the city.
We got stuck in construction traffic about half way there. We literally did not move an inch for about 45 minutes. During that time Vanessa and I thought it would be great to give the kids on the side of the road some candy, baby shoes and play-doh that Vanessa had in the only luggage she had. The children were so happy to get the candy and play-doh and after the word got out that Vanessa had baby shoes, mothers brought their babies over to us so they could get them some shoes. With the van door wide open there were about 20 mothers and children wanting candy or shoes. Vanessa was trying shoes on the babies and she said that all the babies feet were very cold. It was so sad if we did not have a size to fit a child. They were all so grateful and it was so amazing to get such great smiles and thank yous for such minor gifts.

We were off again! the mountains have so many winding and narrow roads. The people drive crazy! By the time we got to Panajachel it was dark. Harold from Mayan Families met us at the hotel and told us Sharon and Patty were sick and would not be joining us for dinner after all. We stopped at the Internet cafe to call our families because we could not dial out at the hotel for some reason. We all went to eat pizza then Harold walked us back to the hotel. It was one full day and just the beginning!