and we're back

Warning: long post. But in my defense, I hardly blogged at all this summer. :) And we don't have internet at the house yet. I'm currently borrowing from someone else. It should be all ready to go next week I think.

Yes, we are back safe and sound...tired but good. Actually, our jetlag has never been so easy to get over. Why? I have no idea, but I am counting it as a big blessing from our Heavenly Father.

I know a lot of people were praying for safe travels for us, and again, God blessed us in a mighty way. We didn't get bumped up to first class or anything, but what's even better is a 20 month old little boy who slept the ENTIRE way (9 hours) from Chicago to Warsaw. He fell asleep before we even took off (late, I might add) and woke up just 10 minutes before we landed (early, which how does that happen when you leave late?)! He ran around the Warsaw airport during the layover and made lots of friends and then fell asleep again for the entire flight (1.5 hours) from Warsaw to Budapest. Seriously, this kid was amazing, and we are so grateful! It made the travel a lot easier on us, and Kevin and I were able to get some sleep here and there.

At the Warsaw airport in his pj's

All of our luggage arrived safely and in tact to Budapest. It was even the first off the plane so we didn't have to wait forever. Amazing! The stinky part is that there was only one luggage cart in the whole baggage claim area, and none of the airport people would go get us another one. We were trying to fit our 7 pieces of luggage plus our carry-on bags and Seth's carseat all onto one, but that obviously didn't work. It all fell off while Kevin was trying to get some help. Fortunately we were in Europe and I had Seth with me, which means that every person there ran over to offer me help. Oh how I love that part of European culture! Finally some airport worker woman had pity on us and went and got us one more. I saw people looking everywhere for the carts. Not sure why they weren't bringing the used ones back into the baggage claim area. Oh well.

Zsolt and Gabi were waiting for us when we arrived, jumping up and down and waving. They wanted to pick us up at the airport, and we warned them that maybe one piece of luggage would fit into their hatchback car. They went and got a trailer so they would haul it all for us. Amazingly generous and kind people they are to us. They insisted on us spending the night at their house, saying it would be difficult to be in a new house and nothing unpacked our first night back. (And it was about 9:00 p.m. when we got back to Diosd.) So we stayed with them. They had called our landlord and got Seth's pack 'n play from the house and had it all set up for him. They even had dinner waiting for us. It was another huge blessing at the end of our travels. Seth went to bed and took about an hour to fall asleep that first night but then slept through the night with no problems. I had anticipated messed up sleeping hours and him waking up at all odd hours of the night, but that has not happened. I think God is giving this pregnant mom a break!

So Wednesday morning we got up and Zsolt and Gabi had breakfast ready for us. Welcome back to Europe Kristen...cold cuts and tomato and cucumber sandwiches. It actually tasted good, although I will miss my bagels every morning. :( We went to school to go get our car, which was completely dead. Trusty Zsolt had jumper cables and got is started for us. I was nervous about that because we can't afford a new car! But it's running like normal so we are yet again praising the Lord for his provision in that area for us.

We went to the house and, with the help of Aaron, started unloading the garage with all our stuff. I took a picture of it all neatly stacked there. Keep in mind that we moved here with four suitcases. Don't know how we got the rest! Actually, we know that it's because of the Lord and providing us with such faithful family, friends, and supporters who have given us money, purchased things for us, or allowed us to borrow so many of these things.

Our landlords came over Wednesday afternoon to go over little things. They had a wonderful "Welcome Home" basket filled with fruit and some things for Seth. I was so touched by them! They really adore Seth already, and we are grateful they are okay with having little ones living in their house. Some people don't want to rent to people with young children. They keep telling us that this is our house now so we should do whatever to make it feel like home. I would love to paint because not a single color in here is what I would choose, but that's not a priority now. Maybe some day! Seth's room is pink, ours is purple, and the rest of the house is in various shades of peach/coral. Yahoo.

Anyway, now that we're back, we've been busy trying to unpack all of our boxes. There have to be a few unpacked boxes somewhere because we are missing some things. Hopefully we will find those things. But we feel like we're living in a mansion over here with about 1400 square feet! We also are lacking some pretty important pieces of furniture, so we are trying to figure that out right now. Can't afford much, so needs before wants. :) Table and chairs first. Dressers and armoires maybe at the end of the year? Our old flat actually had a closet in Seth's room (rare for Europe), so we got spoiled. Our bedroom also had water pipes along the ceiling where we hung our clothes in our room. This house has no closets and no exposed piping for us to get away with hanging things on. So until further notice, our clothes will be stacked in piles as neat as possible. And that should last a total of maybe 4 days before it becomes a huge mess. :) Fortunately the majority of my clothes can stay packed away in boxes since I can't fit into them anytime soon!

Seth has been hilarious the last few days with the move. I think he realizes this is now home. Kevin said it'd take him a month to realize it due to all of our traveling and whatnot this summer, but he has had fun with all of his toys. He's also in his old crib with a majority of the same furniture, so I think it's going smoothly for him. The house is only one story, and I am loving not having the rickety old wooden stairs that we nearly killed ourselves on several times at the old place. Seth has tons more room to run around inside plus an entire yard outside. He wants to help us do everything, which is the funniest part. He insists on carrying empty boxes to the garage and will throw things away for us. He thinks it's actually fun now, so we'll take advantage of it. :)

Well, I think that catches us up on the last couple days. I will have to post some pictures of things around the house, mainly the glorious kitchen. I am super excited about that. Kevin is most excited about the garage because the landlords left their ping pong table behind for us. He's got it all set up and we've already played.

Happy unpacking and finding places for things to me!