A Novice's Look at Traveling Internationally

Dave and I originally started this blog as a way to document our adoption journey and to keep our friends and family updated with our progress. Recently, more and more people that we have never even met have been contacting us through our blog...people who are also interested in international adoption.  In one way, this is incredibly intimidating--After all, we are just experiencing this all for the first time. We are not experts. We are not professionals. :) This is just our story. On the other hand, along the way, God is teaching us so many lessons. If God can use any of this to be helpful or to be an encouragement to other families who are considering adoption, that is just plain amazing. So if you are a new friend following our blog, shoot us an e-mail or leave a comment introducing yourself. I'd love to connect and help however I can!

Can I just say that I am longing to go back to Africa!? Our missionary friends that we were with last summer in Benin, Africa, just came to Wisconsin for a visit. It was incredibly refreshing to catch up with them-to hear more about the progress in their ministry, to hear the messages they had to pass on to us from our African brothers and sisters in Christ, and to laugh as we recounted memories. I also have another friend from church who is headed to Africa in just a few short weeks for a "medical internship" trip of sorts. All this talk of Africa just has me itching to get back. Soon...hopefully within the next year. :)

With Africa on my heart, I thought that I'd share some excerpts from my journal from our trip to Africa. This trip to Benin was my first trip to a third world country. Eye opening. Amazing.

Today's journal excerpt will just be from the first leg of our travels--If you've never traveled internationally before, I think it can be helpful to see what traveling looks like firsthand, from the eyes of a novice (me). I will include different journal entries from that trip here and there, under the label "A Novice's Look at Traveling Internationally." I hope it can be a help to some of you who might be expectantly looking forward to taking your first trip to a third world country to adopt your little child!

June 2012

Though a pilgrim and wandered on this earth, waiting for my eternal home, I have not yet left the country of USA (unless, of course, you count a few hours in Mexico and Canada each). God has seen fit to direct Dave and I on a missions trip to Benin, West Africa. Though I have never been, Dave has served before in Benin with the same missionaries. With great excitement, I look forward to our trip! The people of Benin speak French-which I do not know; however, through Dave's limited French and with the missionaries' help, I hope to communicate with the people as well. Although we do not speak the same language, I believe the love of Christ can be communicated by many means--for this I pray. My greatest anticipation is the opportunity to see what the Gospel looks like in this culture, where the demonic grasps of animism are powerfully confronted with an unsurpassable message--the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Lord, I want to see Your power at work!

We began our journey eastward at about 10:30 AM. We left Milwaukee, WI for Paris, France at about 1:30. After a short layover in Minneapolis, we headed toward the European continent. With a seven hour time leap forward, we would be missing most of our nighttime rest. Armed with nyquil, we attempted to get as much sleep as possible on this eight hour flight--this was much easier said than done. By 7 AM Parisian time (midnight, ours), we landed in fFrance and groggily stepped off this international flight (my first). I was instantly struck with the number of different languages and ethnicities surrounding me--I am mindful that the Lord has yet to call believers from each of these people groups. Perhaps He will use me to share His Good News with them...Someday, all of these languages will cry out together, "Holy, holy, holy-worthy is the Lamb who was slain for us!" I look forward to that day. Until then, may God use me as His ambassador to the nations.   

Dragging our large suitcases and carry-ons, we began our trek across Paris. Our ambitious goal was to take the train system (kinda like NYC's subways) from the airport to our hotel. One problem-neight of us had ever been here or learned to "decode" the train map. After braving our way onto our first train, we pulled out our map and played our parts well as foolish American tourists. It was not long before we were completely lost, wandering the "connectors" of the train system-dragging our heavy luggage and frantically studying the map. Finally, we gave up-we rose to the surface to secure a taxi to our hotel. Apparently a few short hours of sleep had not offered us enough mindpower to conquer the trains--we'll save that for another day.  

Pushing our way outside, we were astonished to pass three or four Parisian soldiers, armed with automatic machine guns. This is definitely not what I was expecting of the famed romantic city of Paris! What a different place this will be. Soon we found a taxi driver, ironically named Jean Baptiste, who navigated the busy streets for us. I have never before seen roads like this. There are no real traffic lanes (at least none that they actually follow); rather, each driver battles the road on their own, pushing past traffic and pedestrians to make their way. What an experience! It's a good thing I was as tired as I was--no strength for worrying if my driver was capable of the journey.  

We finally arrived at our hotel around 10 AM. We made it to our room where we washed away the grime of travel and caught a few more hours of sleep. We are looking forward to exploring the city--after we have recharged.