Romania day 1

On Sunday morning, as I was getting the girls shoes on so they could take me to the church, I began to cry at the thought of leaving my family for 11 days. Bella began to cry and LE fought back the tears. I got myself together and we drove in the rain to the church. When we got to the church it was pouring down rain, so I had to hug and kiss the girls bye in their car seats. I began to cry again, and LE responded "Don't start that again."

Everyone was waiting for me in the van, so I loaded up quickly and we were off for the Houston airport. We stopped in Giddings for Subway, and then headed east still in the rain. I received a text from Ben, "Mommy is so silly when she cries like that," - LE. Merissa's dad drove us and Karen and Scott met us at the airport. We flew British Airways and had great choices of food and movies. I watched The Proposal and chose the ravioli for diner. I could not get comfortable to sleep - 9 hours of in-flight tv and movies - thank goodness for the empty seat between Merissa and I.

We had a 3 hour layover in London, where the girls shopped & the guys sat around, wait, I am a girl, I did not shop. Scott recommended an oyster bar, so I grabbed a spicy crab roll with the leftover Euros I had from last year's stopover in Amsterdam.

The last leg of the trip was a 3 1/2 hour flight to Bucharest. When we arrived it was still raining. When I stood up Chris asked if the guy 3 rows in front of me had a camouflage backpack. He did, it was Jim Shockey, a famous tv hunter who was there to do a special on hunting bear and wild boar in Romania.

The drive through Romania was crazy. I have never experienced worse driving in all of my life. Lanes merged, horns honking, people not yielding right-of-way, cars on sidewalks, I was so glad we had a driver. It was rush hour traffic and it took us nearly 2 hours to get to the Campus Crusade for Christ offices. They had "American" pizza waiting for us. We met our host, Cristina, and we split up for the night to get some rest. Merissa and I crashed hard in her bedroom that she offered us, she slept on the couch with her younger sister. She says they sleep together every night, so they can sit up talking. I am still not sure I believe her.

*view from take-off at London Heathrow Airport