It is SO nice to sleep in one's own bed! Which means, by the way, that we are home. This trip was very similar to the last time. Very little sleep the night before the trip. I let Julia talk to her friends on the phone one last time before we left, and boy did she talk! I think she started at 7:30 pm and finished up around mid-night. I did not sleep much, if at all. She brought me the phone when she finished, because the alarm to get Libby up at 12:30 was on the phone. I got up around 2:00 am, the taxi got there at 2:45, and off to the airport. The flights were good again - we really like Lufthansa. We arrived in Atlanta at about 4:40 pm, worked through the customs line, then had to go through a special line because of Julia's package. I can at least say people were friendly, because they sure did not know what they were doing. We had to explain a lot of it to them. Strange. Then, because we had a minor amount of food from Ukraine with us, we had to go through the agricultural check line. Oh my goodness! Sllloooooooowwwwwwwww! But I can see the purpose. The foreign folks in line in front of us had a ton of cooked meat in their suitcase. When they opened it up . . . whew. All we had were a few cookies and some buckwheat in a store-packaged container. But we finally made it through, after two more hours of lines. April Marion was there to pick us up, and drive us home. Most of the kids were at the house to greet us, and the house looked great. I hear Virginia was the house-cleaning nazi, but thanks to all of them. And did I mention it was so nice to sleep in my own bed? Now to get the house back in shape. Virginia was showing me a light fixture this morning, that she had been worried about. She turned on the light switch, and it starting hissing and popping and smoke came pouring out. I guess they were right. That one is bad.
I will see if Libby has one last post in her, but if not, this is likely the last post for this blog. It has been fun sharing our experience with you, and reading your posts and emails. We are especially thankful for your prayers. If any of you decide to go on a similar wild experience, let us know and we will help you in any way we can. Andy
