We made it!

We are in Canillá! Our truck was finally finished on Thursday afternoon at 3:30 pm.  We all were ready to go so we loaded up and headed out of the city.  We found a Pemex to spend the night.  Yes, we spent the night at a gas station.  We pulled in with the truckers, got some food, used the bathroom and went to sleep.  The next morning we headed toward Oaxaca. 

 

We made it to the coast on Friday and spent the night at a toll booth close to Salina Cruz.  We pulled in and Don began making friends with the workers who would be there overnight.  He bought them some pop/juice and had some interesting conversations!  We were so thankful for the camper and the ability to just pull in and sleep.

 

Saturday we headed to Tapachula.  Our last Mexico stop before we would cross the border.  We actually got a hotel room for four of us.  Don and Caleb spent the night in the camper. We were all able to finally take showers!  It was awesome! ;)

 

Sunday morning, we realized that we had missed the place on the road where we had to turn in our temporary vehicle importation sticker.  We had to go back 40 km and get inspected.  We had a couple issues but overall the inspection went well; however, we were late.  Seems to be a theme!!

 

We decided to go ahead and cross anyway. The border crossing is a hassle but it went pretty well.  We got on the road to meet up with Aaron and Joseph Ficker.  We found them, switched the camper to Aaron's truck and headed to Quetzaltenango (nicknamed Xela - pronounced shay-la).  On our way, one of the leaf springs on the camper broke, but we were able to continue.

 

We followed Aaron and Joseph to a hotel where they got a room and we spent the night in the camper.  Through a contact that lives in Xela, we found a mechanic and a guy who could 'fabricate' a new leaf spring for us.  After waiting to get it made and installed, we were ready to head out when we noticed a puddle of gas under our Suburban! Ugh!

 

For some reason, the fuel line was rubbing against another line and a hole developed.  We had gas running out of the fuel line.  The line has specific Chevy fittings so Aaron and Joseph proceeded to construct a makeshift repair.  We are SOOOOO thankful for them!  They got it working and we headed out of Xela, finally on our last leg!  We left close to 5:30 pm and didn't get very far before we had a flat tire.  Double Ugh!!

 

We fixed it and got going again. We had one more spare but it needed to be on the rim of the now blown tire.  Our family found a tire repair place while Aaron and Joseph continued forward.  We got the tire fixed and set off to catch our camper! 

 

We finally found them and we continued on to Canillá.  This part of the road was the worst.  We had to get through mountain switchbacks and a couple towns with tight turns.  Then the road from Santa Cruz del Quiche to San Andres is dirt.  It was terrible.  Finally we got through San Andres (it is now 12:30 am) which is the last stop before Canillá.  We got about halfway when a tire blew.  We used our last spare to fix it and continued on. 

 

We pulled into the ministry compound at about 1:30 am. Finally, our journey was over. The kids commented on our wonderful it was to be 'home'!!

 

We have been trying to settle in and get ourselves organized over the past two days.  This is the first that we have been able to connect via wifi.  We had to get our phones going today - it is my mom's birthday!!  We are so thankful that we were able to call her and spend a few minutes hearing her voice!

 

Here is a picture of our front porch and door of the apartment that is our new home! Notice all of the stuff still piled up there! But the boys were able to put together our table! 

 

 

Here is a quick shot of our living space.  We have been trying to find spots for everything but our main focus today was the furniture and the tv (courtesy of some awesome friends who gave us theirs before we left!!). We are also trying to set up our bed. We have been sleeping on a full size owned by the ministry which has been a blessing, but we are so excited to sleep a night on our queen bed!  It is really the little things!! ;)

 

We will try to post more pictures but we have limited wifi right now and Caleb has some school due this week!  We are still transitioning but so happy to be 'home'!  Thank you all for praying us through this journey.  We had to purchase 7 extra tires (and used every single one of them), we took over 3 weeks (instead of our planned 2!), we spent many days going without showers (combined with the animals, our camper had quite the interesting smell!), we had to replace our transmission, get a fuel line fixed and replace a leaf spring (didn't even know what that was before this trip!), but through it all the Lord was so faithful.  We could see His hand upon us in so many different ways.  We are so thankful for your encouragement and your support!

 

Please continue to pray for our transition time! We need to get settled, get the school books out and start stepping into our roles here. Don got up Tuesday morning after our late arrival and headed to clinic so he is a step ahead of the rest of us!! One day at a time!  Blessings!