Rescued!

Settled in and happy after some sleep

There is no other word than RESCUED to describe how we came to leave the United States and get on a plane bound for Houston.  In the month before we left, and even before that, our families were fantastic.  We had so much stuff to sort through with regard to our house and that is really hard to do with little munchkins.  Both grandmothers took time with the kids so Dave and I could prep.  That was exceedingly helpful.

We sorted out several garage-fulls of stuff to give away and time was getting short.  So, Hannah (intern at our church) rescued us in the form of making arrangements for a Karen church to come and pick up the extra household and clothing items we had for distribution to newly settled refugee families.  They ended up coming three or four times over a couple of weeks, and not having to take those things somewhere else was such a blessing to us.  It was also fun to see people looking through and their excitement over things they could use.  They also picked apples off the crabapple tree (which normally just fall on the ground and serve as bird food).  Seems that this type of apple is used to make a special Karen food and they were mighty excited to be able to get some.

In the last week, Dave and I didn’t really get a lot of sleep as we tried to finish up our jobs, clear out the house, and pack.  And that is when the rescue truly began.  I don’t remember much detail, as I got far less sleep over a prolonged period of time than I think I ever have in my life.  (College = 9 hours of sleep per night for me, plus naps when needed and even with newborns I could nap.)  This was full out nose to the grindstone.  We culled, moved, stacked our stuff in the basement, and tried to set things aside to pack without really knowing how we would fit all our stuff in the luggage allotment. [It didn’t all fit.] We got fewer and fewer hours of sleep each night, were so thankful to Nathalie (our au pair) for staying with us until just before we left and people like Rachel from SALT who offered out of the blue to take the girls for a few evenings.  My mom came to stay with the girls the last few days to give us a chance to keep working.

Just one of our sorting piles

It became evident to us on the Friday before our Tuesday departure that although we had made great progress, we still had an awful lot to do.  I put out a request for help on our church email list and lo and behold- we got a couple of helpers.  And this is when the rescue (for me) really hit home.  You see, we’ve given things before when help requests have gone out.  That’s pretty easy.  But giving of time- that’s something we don’t have an awful lot of, especially with small kids.  Usually when a time request goes out, I am already booked and it’s not feasible.  We had two people come from church to help with just the right skills and willingness to help at just the right time.  One cleaned our bathrooms and the other helped with mowing the lawn, moving our beds, and whatever else needed to be done.  My in-laws helped by moving things to their house and doing part of the mowing and my mom and sister took the girls.  A friend took the girls for a time and took my business clothing donation to a non-profit.  Our brother-in-law came and trimmed a hedge and disassembled some furniture and our wonderful neighbors down the street took over our recycling and reclaimed construction materials.  It is not an exaggeration to say that without the help, there is no way we could possibly have finished what we needed to get done.  I had a few moments of near panic, but then someone would stop by or something would happen that made me think we could really make this all work somehow- little by little.  I felt just as I have during this whole sabbatical process- that the way was being made straight before us and somehow it would all work out. 

In terms of rescue, I’m typically a pretty capable, competent person who doesn’t ask for or need a lot of outside help.  (Or else I hire it out, but then I’m still in charge.)  This was a situation where we literally could not do it in our own power.  Likely and unlikely rescuers came forward, some bound by friend or familial ties and those with no obligation at all.  I’m not used to being in that position, but I am so very thankful to those who helped us. 





After the 24 hour trip

The rescue carried through to the trip- Dave and I stayed up all night packing and sorting our final stuff into suitcases, weighing them, making decisions about what to leave behind.  My in-laws agreed to take care of storing/sorting/delivering the last bits of stuff and then drove us to the airport, where we showed up an hour and a half ahead of our domestic flight.  It wasn’t enough time to get through security.  The email from the airline said to get there an hour ahead….but we weren’t reckoning on the amount of time needed for our luggage.  After some harried waiting in the security line and a literal sprint to the gate (security needed to check our baby food to make sure it was really baby food after we finally made it to the checkpoint), we found out we’d missed our first flight by 5-10 minutes.  But even that ended up being a rescue with a hidden blessing.  We were rebooked (at no cost- I don’t think they had to do that) on a direct flight to Houston, where we would catch up with our bags that had gone through Chicago en route to Houston.  We had a couple of hours to relax, repack our carry-ons, Dave caught a short snooze, and we were off to Houston.  We had some lounge passes once there and our flight was delayed due to mechanical problems.  We ended up in Houston for about 5 hours longer than we should have been, but that meant we didn’t have to spend those 5 hours in the Lima airport (which has no lounge).  All in all, it was another mistake that ended up being a blessing (and netted each of us 7,000 frequent flier miles as an apology). 

Arrival at the airport found us with not one but two rescuers- someone from the school that owns the house we are renting (I didn’t know they were planning to send someone for us) and the people who generously offered to pick us up (a family living in Arequipa).  We got a pack and play from them and a pan of delicious scones and the college driver got the house keys and dropped us off.  We had beds and sheets, having purchased those from the previous occupants of the house and we crashed in our new, tidy home.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been truly rescued from something, but the feeling of helplessness followed by the intense relief of being rescued is a feeling that will not soon leave me.  Thank you to all of our rescuers, and if you had a part to play and I didn't mention you, please forgive the oversight. 



Finally in Arequipa!