Altamira, Mexico

Yeah, our hotel has wireless internet! It took too long trying to put on a picture, so I'll let everything up to your imagination. :)

Thank God he brought us through the border crossing experience. We got in line on the US side around 7am. The border opened at 9am and we passed through to the Mexican side where it was only 8:15 or so! They had their time change over the weekend. We had to wait in line until they opened at 9am. When it was our turn, we got "red-lighted" and had to pull to the side to be checked. It appeared that almost everyone had to wait. Well, over 2 1/2 hours and almost $200 later (including visas and vehicle insurance) we were on our way!! The long story version is great with many twists and turns. :) Oh, we didn't have to unload our truck, so another answer to prayer!

In the next town we did got pulled over by the police, but after a couple of questions and finding out we were "transmigrantes" they told us to have a good day. Thank you, God.

The rest of the trip was refreshingly uneventful and we are enjoying our hotel. Harlan was ecstatic to turn on the TV and catch the end of the game and see the Phillies win the World Series! :)

Thank you to everyone who is "following" and praying!

Moving on to Mexico!

We made it to the border!

This morning we drove about 3 hours arriving at the broker's office late morning. It is a very basic place that appeared like it should be located on the other side of the border. We spent around two hours there. Everything went well, they didn't make us unload the truck. Hope we don't have to do that anywhere else either.

**lined up with the big boys at the broker**

We feel pretty confident our paperwork is in order for the border tomorrow. We are staying in a hotel about 20 min. from where we will cross into Mexico. We plan on arriving at the border around 7:00am Central Time ( 8:00 Eastern Time). The border opens at 9:00am. So we'll be waiting for awhile before we move across.

We are very grateful for how God has responded to our prayers so far. Up to this point, we have been blessed with a very smooth trip. That's not to say we haven't been a little stressed or weary at times. But overall we have a lot to be thankful for. Stay tuned!

Hopefully we will be able to keep up the blogging. Perhaps not quite as often.

So long good ole' U.S.A we'll miss you! We'll catch up with you all from the other side.

Well we tore through Texas today. We didn't see a whole lot of interest from the interstates. Lots of wide open spaces! We went through Dallas which should be the largest city we go through on our trip. Traffic was heavy but never slowed or stopped. Actually on this whole trip so far we haven't hit any bad traffic, accidents, etc. We also went through Austin and around San Antonio.

The kids are doing great. We've pretty much settled into a routine with them on the road. Morning they do their homework then whatever keeps them occupied. Afternoons are DVD time.

We are staying overnight about 3 hours from the border in a little town called George West. We're at a Best Western Inn that has wireless but our room is on the end and the signal doesn't reach that far. So I'm out on the corridor next to the office.

Tomorrow we'll drive to the broker at Pharr TX. Wewill take care of things there, get a hotel room close to the border and do all the final preps for crossing the border early Wed. Those are our plans God willing.

Have a good night everyone!

Good Sunday evening from Durant OK, a stones throw from the Texas border.

Go Phillies! I probably rather be watching them than doing this but anywho. We got free high speed here at the Comfort Inn so I better make good use of it.

What a great time we had at Will and Karen's house. Just a really wonderful family to spend time with. They own about 40 acres in a beautiful outback country setting. Yesterday (and today) the weather was perfect. I helped Will work on a new deck for their house. Later we all drove over to see the big house construction project Will is overseeing. It will be an amazing place in an amazing location! Lots of wildlife in the area.

We attended First Southern Baptist Church of Coffeyville this morning and enjoyed the service there. We left the Schofields around 1:15pm.

We drove through Oklahoma today. It started out very flat then south of Tulsa the land became more rolling. There certainly didn't appear to be much of anything around most places. A lot of the lands we passed through were part of Indian reservations. Cherokee, Creek, Choktow and others. I believe if I remember correctly most of these tribes were moved here by the U.S. government. Feel free to correct me on that. I don't have time to research that right now but I'd love to.

Anyway, I think the light from the computer screen is keeping the kids awake so we'll catch up with you another day.

Thanks for thinking about us and praying for us today!

In Coffeyville, Kansas

The Thursday trip to my aunt Joyce and Merv Zimmerman's went very well. The whole family agreed this trip felt shorter (maybe because of the 1 ½ hour long movie we watched :) We had a good night's sleep and Harlan even got to have scrapple for breakfast one last time!

We arrived at Will and Karen Schofield's house around 5:00pm. They have a beautiful house at the end of a long winding lane off a gravel road. We roasted hot dogs around a huge bonfire for dinner, so Harlan also got to have a fire! We look forward to a day off today except for blogging for our faithful followers. :)

The top picture is the Schofield's driveway as we headed in.

We plan on heading south on Sunday afternoon so we can arrive at Pharr, Texas on Tuesday and cross the border on Wednesday, God willing. Please continue to be in prayer as the broker still doesn't sound too positive about all the things we want to take across the border. For those who do not know already, we will probably not be able to connect with Bernardo from Belize to travel through Mexico. We thank God for the answered prayers so far on this trip and believe he will take us the rest of the way.

Repacking

We were looking forward to mostly resting today at my sister, Sharon and Bill's house. However after a phone call to the "transmigrantes" broker yesterday and a follow-up call this morning, we decided to unpack the truck and repack pretty much all our luggage(just for the fun of it!) No, the broker highly recommended packing all similar things together as much as possible and cutting out videos and most toys. So we spent most of our afternoon doing that REALLY FUN JOB. I suppose we'll soon be packing and unpacking in our sleep.

At any rate definitely keep on praying about the whole border experience.

We did get our truck title Fed-Exed this morning from a nearby shipping place to the border.

Angelica, Ali and Zack did some school work this morning with their cousins (who are also home schooled). Then they enjoyed playing most of the day. I think they would like to stay here longer.

Tennessee

Hello from Tennessee. So far traveling has gone pretty smooth, but a nine hour day on the road does leave you feeling a little weary. I've learned that a five minute nap does wonders to cure after lunch sleepiness.

The view from the interstates hasn't changed a whole lot yet. We'll see what tomorrow brings through central Tenn. And up into southern Ill.

"Cattle on a thousand Virginia and Tennessee hills"

First Day of Travel

Yes, we all actually fit into the truck along with most of the items we wanted to take. Now, we're sitting here at Dan and Gwen Horning's house eating apple pie (well, everyone is except me :) We had a good 4 hour trip down with a 45 min lunch break at a West Virginia Welcoming Center. We look forward to a much longer trip tomorrow as we head to Bill and Sharon March, Harlan's sister, in SW Tennessee.

Heading Out

10/19/08
Almost loaded and ready to head out! Thanks to several dry loading runs, we figured out how to get just about everything in there we wanted to (kind of like loading a truck at Musselman's :).

Tomorrow we begin our long anticipated excursion. Just a short hop to Virginia. We're anxious to see some beautiful sights in our home country before we leave it.

This is the Dodge Dakota truck we trust will get us to Honduras. Not sure how much we faith we have in the maker, but we do have faith that our Maker will keep it going!

We hope to update you daily or every other day while in the U.S. and as often as we can after crossing the border into Mexico and C.A.

Please keep us in your prayers as we head out on the road. Thanks for all your support!

Hello and welcome to our blog. We will do our best to keep you updated here on life at La Finca Orphanage. Our projected itinerary is as follows:

• October 20 - Depart mid-morning. Planning to arrive at Dan & Gwen Horning's in Bridgewater, Virginia by mid-afternoon.
• October 21 - Depart Virginia in a.m. Plan to arrive at Harlan's sister and brother-in-law, Bill and Sharon March. They live in Madisonville, Tennessee. We will be staying there two nights.
• October 23 - Now it's on to Dahlgren, Illinois to visit Janelle's aunt and uncle, Joyce and Merv Zimmerman. We will be staying here 1 night.
• October 24 - Next we're headed for Coffeyville, in the SE corner of Kansas to Will and Karen Schofield. These are friends of ours who we met in Honduras. They are originally from Mississippi, but have moved to Kansas. We will be staying here for a couple of nights.
• October 26 or 27 - We are planning to head for Texas to meet Bernardo from Belize. He will be helping us with our journey through Mexico.
• October 28 or 29 - We plan to cross the Mexican border
• October 31 or November 1 - Planning to cross the Guatemalan border
• November 1 - We will be meeting up with fellow EMM missionaries, Galen and Phyllis Groff who are in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala.
• Next, for the final leg of our trip, it's on to Honduras! We hope to arrive at La Finca November 4/5/6.

We would appreciate your prayers for us as we travel. May God be our guide!