It started at 6:00am EST in Atlanta and ended at 7:00pm EST Panajachel, Guatemala and in between was one great big adventure!

The girls were so ridiculously cute with their backpacks and blankets going through security in ATL. For them it was all new, so even the long lines and walking through security with no shoes on became fun! Thankfully, neither of them had to be patted down by TSA…that might have set things off in the wrong direction. You should have seen the girls faces as the plane took off! It was worth a million dollars! I love how excited they get over simple things. Thankfully all of our luggage arrived with us, and we were off through customs without hiccup. The Radford’s met us at the airport and down the road we went. Stopping along the way at McDonald’s (the service is WAY better in Guatemala), and later to cover the luggage with a tarp (it was tied down to the roof). Along the way we ran into some flash flooding…some of the streets looked like small rivers, and let’s just say some people are going to have a hard time starting their cars in the morning. The girls made a game of counting stray dogs along the road. I made a game of counting guys urinating on the side of the road. We stopped to grab a Coke and saw some cute rabbits in cages, only to discover they weren’t pets, but were on the menu at the local restaurant. As we got into the mountains we started literally driving through the clouds…visibility was down to 20-40 feet! My buddy Lee (missionary here in Guatemala) said it was the worst he had ever seen it! Sadly we even saw a fatal accident along the way. Then as we came down the mountain into Panajachel the girls saw their first waterfall and then their first volcano. All said, it was one great big adventure getting here…can’t wait to see what the week holds!

As internet access allows, I’ll do my best to keep you updated this week about what’s going on with our family mission trip to Guatemala!