Moving

Life defined at this moment:

Moving is like finals, or going to the dentist, or anything else we agonize over - at some point, in the near future, it will be done.  That's good news.

We've landed in Texas

We are in Austin now having landed in Houston Friday, spent time with my mother, bought a van, went to Bryan yesterday for worship at Westminster PC our home church, hung out with friends a bit there and headed to Austin today to see John's dad.

Last week was just hard - saying goodbye to everyone in Peru. I am even still wrestling with those emotions. I am grateful to be here right now and have loved seeing friends and family here in Texas. But I do long to merge my two worlds.

Alas...

Update on Maggie

She has been picked up in Houston and is doing well - aside from a roll in some poop once set was set free which has left her smelling lovely, I hear.
I guess it was a stress reliever.

Thanks so much Carol, Peggy and Lesley!

Maggie heads back to the states

Tomorrow bright and early John will head out with Maggie to send her back to the states. We are sending her early to leave enough room for "unexpected difficulties" should they arise.

John will leave tomorrow with Maggie around 7:30am in a taxi driven by our friend Ronald, to pick up Pastor Jaime, the muscle behind the mission. They will go to the Trujillo airport, where John has already been twice in the past 10 days trying to secure a reservation for Maggie with Lan's Cargo unit, but has been assured by the guy at the airport that a reservation is not necessary - just show up with the dog at 8am the morning you will fly. Even with John begging to give him a reservation, they guy still wouldn't-no need, he says - the plane is NEVER full.
Makes me nervous.

So, John has a ticket, Maggie will hopefully get on, especially with Pastor Jaime's help, and they will head down to Lima where John will then pick her up and head across the street (it's actually a bit of a ways across the street) with Maggie to the customs agency I have been coordinating with. He will then work on 2-4 hours of paper work, pay for her transport and leave her to be put on the Continental flight to Houston that leaves just before midnight.

She is to arrive Wednesday morning and will be picked up by dear friends, Peggy, Carol and Lesley. She will then spend a posh few weeks being spoiled and pampered at Miss Peggy's Pet Palace. Which will be nice, because I am sure this trip will be more than a little stressful for her.

Please pray that things will go smoothly. That would just be great.

Some explanation

I think I need to explain some of the anxiety accompanying the details regarding the dog and the cat.

As everyone who knows me knows, I love my pets. I love them so much, that I was not coming to Peru without them. John's joke is always, "She didn't even ask about the kids" or something like that to which I reply, "I never had anyone ask, 'Are you taking the kids with you to Peru?'".

But I digress...
Let's talk first about the dog. Maggie is our sweet, lovable, 100lb Black Lab who takes up way too much space and weight for her to fly commercial, so she has to go back by herself, via Continental Cargo. The working out of the trip from Lima to Houston has been amazingly easy (after three phone calls to the customs agency in Lima just trying to get emails exchanged -"Are you telling me in English or Spanish? Is it an "i" or an "e"?) From Peru, all of Maggie's arrangements must be made through a customs agency. At first that scared the bejeebees out of me, but it is turning out to be a smoother, more secure process than it was to bring her into Peru. I am so thankful to God for that.

So one would think that getting her from Trujillo to Lima would be no problem? Of course not. Because she is so big, we will have to send her via LAN airlines Cargo - arrangements to be made by us, or via bus with John. Either way, John has to go down to Lima with her to do the 4 hours (that's what we were told) of paper work required to get her on the plane to Houston. And since the LAN airlines people in Trujillo don't like to answer their phone, it's not going to be easy work figuring this out.

And now the cat - the cat should be EASY since he is not 100lbs and is able to go with us. Again, getting the cat on the plane from Lima to Houston with us was no problem. Getting the cat on the plane from Trujillo to Lima required uncountable hours on hold, being disconnected four times, and three call backs. The process goes like so...1.Purchase your plane tickets online. 2.Call LAN and request your pet to come with you. 3.Call back 24 hours later to see if they said yes. 4. Call back another 6 hours later to see if they said yes.

They said yes, so the cat is booked. No problem! But there still may be a problem...
LAN doesn't have listed anywhere we could find whether a hard-sided carrier is required or a soft-sided. The airlines have their preferences and you better comply. So I asked the guy that told me "yes, my cat was confirmed", "Do we need to bring the cat in a hard-sided carrier or a soft-sided carrier?"

His answer, "Yes, your cat is confirmed and your reservations have been made."

I asked again, "No - I need to know what type of pet carrier is required - hard-sided or soft-sided."

"Yes, you have nothing more to do, you are all confirmed."

I guess I should mention that I called LAN's toll free number and had been making all the arrangements in English. This poor guy spoke English pretty well, but it was clear that he didn't have a category for the vocabulary required for "pet travel". I can relate. So, being sensitive to the feeling of not understanding what someone is saying, but really wanting to and making a good guess from the context of the conversation, I let him off the hook, told him thank you for his help and hung up.

Still not knowing what kind of carrier I need.

My friend Tracy said I should just "double-bag" the cat with both kinds of carriers. That just might work.