Baby Update

Just wanted to give a quick baby update. We had our first doctors appointment here at home on the 2nd of January and were pleased to have a sonogram. The baby is growing, weighing in at 2 lbs right now and looking very healthy. There are a few things the doctor is concerned about with me, but we are running some more tests and I am resting as much as possible. I feel good and am healthy so there is nothing really to worry about, just some precautions I think. We will keep you posted as the time get's closer!!!

Nothing Says Welcome Home like the Wyndham

We began our 24 hour trek home at 4 o'clock in the morning on Sunday, December 30th. Our sweet friends the Varners took us to the airport and bid us farewell. We saw that all of our 7 bags were checked through to Jackson and we were each lugging two very overweight and oversized carryons as we left Adana one last time. Unfortunately, our flight over the water was an hour late leaving Istanbul as they had to check everyone's passports three different times, empty each of our carryons and a few unlucky individuals got the full pat down behind the curtain! The pilot was unable to make up any time and we landed in Chicago an hour late. We knew we would be cutting our connection close under the best of circumstances so needless to say our late arrival had us a little worried. After politely asking folks in front of us to let us off the plane first, and throwing a small child or two out of the way we were first in line at the Immigration Desk. Only to be greeted by Mr. No Manners and Mr. I Take My Job Too Seriously. (let me just say for those of you who have traveled out of the country for any lengthy amount of time - you always imagine that the immigration officer will say something polite like "Welcome home Mrs. Yates" and you will feel all proud to be an American and so glad you are home.... but this never seems to happen.. no one cares that you have been gone a long time and are so glad to be standing on US soil - why do I continue to expect it??) Anyway - we speed through immigration and get our three luggage carts situated right next to the carousel ready to accept our 7 bags. We wait for a while, then a while longer.. as the time goes by we realize that we are probably not going to make our connecting flight to Atlanta. A few bags come, of course not ours, then we wait some more... in all we waited an hour for our bags to be unloaded off the airplane. Thankfully all seven bags did come off the carousel at 3:45, our connecting flight left at 3:30. So now the fun begins, after going back and forth between the domestic and international terminals, the Delta desk and the Turkish Airlines desk, we realize that we will be staying the night in Chicago... there is no way to get out of Chicago that night. So that brings us to the Wyndham. Fortunately, along with our free night stay we got food vouchers for room service. Let me just say that we used every penny of those vouchers and ordered 3 entrees, two desserts, a fruit plate and two big glasses of milk. By 8 pm I was comotose and could not move, not to mention my feet had swelled so much from all of the walking between the terminals.

We were up and out the door before 4 a.m. the next morning to catch the first flight out to Atlanta. Our plan was to be in Jackson by 10:30. We left an hour late from Chicago as we had to wait for the (one and only) de-icing truck to refill it's fluid. We arrived late in Atlanta and I tried to keep up with Jared as he sprinted through the airport to our next gate (2 terminals over). We made it to the gate and found out our flight had been delayed 30 minutes - I was SO THANFUL.. until 30 minutes turned into 3 hours! We sat in the Atlanta airport waiting with all the masses as almost every flight was delayed.
We finally made it home on December 31st and 1pm, 41 hours after we left Adana. Only the fun did not stop there.. instead of 7 bags waiting for us - there were 2. Two bags full of summer clothes and books. We waited four days until the rest of the luggage arrived - but we are so thankful to say that it all arrived safe and sound!
We are so glad to be home and are floating between my parents and Jared's parents as we figure some things out. Please continue to pray for us!

Where in the World... Part 2

Okay okay.. so I am sure you thought we would never finish our where in the world series.. but here you go. So we left you hanging in Venice and I am sure you are dying to know where we went next. We got up Christmas Eve day and drove through Lake Como (always on the look out for the Night Fox) and stopped for a great lunch at a quaint family owned Italian place. We drove on and stayed the night in Luzern, Switzerland. It was a beautiful town right on the river and completely decorated for Christmas. Unfortunately almost everything closed early on Christmas eve, but we managed to find a great seafood restaurant for supper. We also stumbled upon an English speaking protestant church that had a midnight service. We had a wonderful Christmas eve and woke up to a great buffet at the Best Western :)! We ate our Christmas day feast courtesy of McDonalds and hit the road about noon headed to Germany. Our last major stop was Fussen, Germany, the home of two of King Ludwig II's castles. The larger of the castle is the model for the Disney Cinderella Castle. We toured the castle on the 26th along with 5,000 other tourists. We spent our last night in Munich where we tried to catch a movie but to no avail... however we did find a Subway and devoured a couple of six inch subs and some cookies! It was a great vacation, a once in a lifetime opportunity for sure, but it definitely wiped out our travel budget for a good while!
Check back soon and I will post pictures as soon as I find our camera!