We've made it thus far

We started our journey to Venezuela on thursday morning at 8:30. Well, panchito and I started at 5 when we woke up! I was pretty uptight about the driving to Minneapolis since it had been snowing and drifting. We finally got all loaded up and on our way by 8:30 (after panchito insisted on re-packing not only our suitcases on Wednesday night but also our carry-ons on Thursday morning--in the end he wasright and I did submit eventually but I put up quite a fuss at first considering the TWO weeks I spent packing and re-packing!). The driving was not bad and we made it to the sleep-n-fly hotel in a little more than the estimated three hours. We checked in, loaded the shuttle, shared a shuttle ride to the airport with our friends from church (Rauman's) and checked in at the continental kiosk. The flight to houston was scheduled to leave on time. We grabbed a bite to eat at Chilis Too, played in the kids area and went to the gate. We boarded a bit late but still caught our connecting flight in Houston with a bit more than two hours to spare! We left Houston at midnight and got to venezuela at 5:50 their time. Both flights went well for the kids. Katrina slept well on both and Samuel slept great on the first and ok on the second. He is not a big fan of being held while he sleeps for long periods so he was quite restless but exhausted nonetheless. Upon arrival we went through immigation, got our passports stamped and got our luggage. We checked three suitcases and they were the last three on the carousel. Literally! Our biggest one with the kids clothes and my clothes had a sticker on it that read, " ultima maleta." ("last suitcase") God provided yet another blessing in our luggage's arrival! So, here we sit like birds in the wilderness, to quote my dad, waiting for our third and final flight to Puerto Ordaz. We are praying it leaves on time at 11:30. If it does, we will be in PO by 1:00. The kids are doing amazingly well, laughing and playing as I type this post with one finger on the iPod (so excuse the mistakes, please!). We will post pictures later, hopefully! Feliz Navidad, everyone!