Wednesday, February 28

We were up early (2:30 am) to be at Jere and Kristen’s shortly after 3:30. Jere said they wanted to be on the road by 4:00 am – and that Jason, the driver for Infinity Limo, is usually early.

We got to Jere’s at 3:35 and followed Jason in the driveway. 🙂

Everyone had their suitcases ready, so it didn’t take long to pack the van.

Prayer for our trip. Left to right: Jesse, Jared, Ian, Josh, Kristen, Jere, Taylor, and Cerwin. We were on the road by 3:48 am.

Sunrise on the way to JFK.

Going by The Statue of Liberty

Taylor, the daughter of a nurse friend of Kristen’s, went along with our crew and was a fun addition on the drive to New York.

She was also going to Africa, but on a different flight than ours.

3 hours and 45 minutes later we arrived at our destination for the morning.

Little did we know then that we would have several moments of “panic” when we learned that Jere and Kristen needed birth certificates for Ian, Jared, and Jesse to be able to enter Africa. It was never brought to Jere and Kristen’s attention before this. They thought passports were all they needed.

The need for birth certificates to certain countries is for the prevention of human trafficking.

The agents were extremely kind and thoughtful as they asked Jere and Kristen if they could call someone to find the certificates, take a cell phone photo, and send it to them. Jere called their next door neighbor, Laura, “knowing” that she would no longer be home, but taking their girls to school.

God had everything covered because the girls were both sick, meaning Laura was at home. Jere told her where to find keys, then the room and cabinet where the birth certificates were stored. She took pictures, sent them to Jere, and in less than fifteen minutes the problem was solved – and we breathed a prayer of gratefulness to God.

Kristen said to Laura, “I apologize for being glad that your girls are sick today.” 🙂

(While we waited for the birth certificate photos, the family with the next agent was having the same problem with their baby. They were quite distressed. We could hear him making plans for his dad to come back to the airport while she called someone on the phone on where to locate the birth certificate. Apparently photos weren’t an option for them. They had a one-hour drive to go home and another hour back to the airport and entered our plane just before takeoff. Our flight was a bit late in taking off, so we may have been waiting on them. Overseas flights will do that quicker than in country flights.)

By the time we saw our plane – South African Airlines – we were relaxed and through security. Well, maybe Jere and Kristen hadn’t totally relaxed yet after the birth certificate scare. 🙂

An interesting wall sign next to our departure gate.

Waiting for our plane.

We watched airplanes of every variety coming and going.

We watched more planes after boarding and waiting for departure.

In the air over New York City

Our last view of the USA for two weeks

We kept the flight information on the screen in front of us for most of the trip. When you are on an international flight (at least with South African Airlines), you immediately go by the time zone of your arrival location. It is strange to be leaving at 11:15 am and have the time immediately changed to 6:15 pm. (Obviously we had been in the air for half an hour when I took this picture.)

We were served supper shortly after takeoff – which was about our body’s lunch time.

I took this picture of the moon and its reflection on the wing about 3:45 pm according to my watch – but it was 10:45 pm in South Africa. The lights of the cabin were darkened after supper to make us think it was bedtime. I took a short nap before waking up to this scene. Then fell asleep again. When I woke up the next time it was March 1.