Final goodbyes

   We spent most of the month of April with each of our parents. We went to Knoxville first, where Tim's family lives. We stayed just over a week. We were able to do many of the things that we needed to accomplish and spend time with Tim's parents and his brother's family. We packed and repacked our large suitcases multiple times. We played with Tim's nieces in the back yard (Tim had an adventure riding a small wagon down the hill). We stayed up most nights playing Nerts (a card game) after the girls went to bed. We had such a relaxing and good time.
   Then we went to Memphis to visit Lori's family. We spent a lot of time with Lori's whole family. We all were together to celebrate Easter. Rebekah had her first Easter egg hunt. We dug through flowers and climbed trees to find as many eggs as possible. We also were able to have picnics and a big breakfast with everyone before saying goodbye.
   We went to Nashville the day before we were supposed to leave. We met with Tim's friend, Geoff, and his family at the park. The kids enjoyed playing on the slides and swings. Our parents came to Nashville and we all spent the night in Nashville and tried to get a good nights sleep before leaving. The next morning we all went to the airport. We had no issues with our bags other than there were a lot of them (9 checked bags, 7 carry-ons, 2 car seats and a stroller). The woman who checked us in was so helpful. We spent a little bit of time with our parents before heading through security. Right before we went through security, one of the United ladies tapped me on the shoulder to inform me that our flight had been cancelled. We spent the next several hours getting our flights rearranged, which allowed us a little more time with our families. We then actually went through security, without any issues, and made it to our gate. We were finally on our way...or so we thought. Our flight was delayed just enough to give us an illegal connection and, therefore, bumped us off of the plane. We couldn't even be rebooked leaving from Nashville for two more days! After spending 12 hours in the airport with two tired and hungry little girls, we drove a rented car back to Knoxville. We woke up about 4-5 hours later to catch a flight out of Knoxville airport. This time, we actually made it on the flight. Things went well after that. On our way to Ghana, we have stopped at a missions conference.
   This conference has been a wonderful way to start. We have been able to fellowship with people we know, met several new missionaries, and learned a lot. It is giving us a little time to get over jet lag (although we will have another time change of about 2 or 3 hours when we go to Ghana). Rebekah has enjoyed playing with other children her age.  We have also been able to meet the family who are currently serving at BMC in Ghana. They are a sweet family, with whom we are excited to work. We are in Ghana and will be staying in the capital, Accra, for almost a week. We have several people to meet and more paperwork to complete. We look forward to begin settling in at our house in a few days.