And to all a goodnight…

I'm writing this a day before I'll be able to post it. Right now it is 6:23pm in London (12:23 pm in Arlington). Dara is stretched out over two chairs and her body is twitching as she falls asleep. Today she has slept in an airplane seat, a seat on the subway/tube that runs through London, and now the airport seat before she does it again on another airline. Dade just returned from brushing his teeth with Joel. He's skipping around the rows of seats with the silly McDonald's toy he got today. He slept on the airplane and the subway too.

Let me go back a bit and give testimony to how God helped us get checked in. Since Monday ladies who work in the travel department of AIM have been trying to pre-pay for our extra baggage. The computer system of British Airway has been having difficulties. So emails were sent to prepare the people at DFW for the 20 large pieces of luggage coming their way. Well, about 11am on Wednesday, the computer system was working and Joel was able to pre-pay for the luggage (which saved us $160). Our children's pastor, Charles, and dear friend, Bryan, helped load up all of the luggage into a church van and deposit them at DFW. It went so smoothly! There was no one in line when we arrived. The duty manager working had seen the email and was expecting us. When the last piece of checked luggage headed down the conveyor belt, there were about 12 people in line to check in. I know they were probably not grateful we arrived first but I sure was. We were hoping our luggage would all be under the 51 pound maximum, but I really wasn't 100% sure. They were! It was great.

The 9 hour flight to London was uneventful. We arrived tired but ready for our 13 hour layover. I think we did an amazing job of seeing London in a short time. The tube took about 1 hour to get to down town, and Dade wasn't sure he liked it when we were underground. He worried about what would happen if the train broke down – a legitimate concern and I could only assure him that I was sure they had a plan for that.

We walked all over London (I would highly recommend riding one of the tour buses). We first had to find a store to buy a few pieces of warmer clothes. Dade was in shorts and was quite chilly. Dara and I had thin sweaters that didn't keep out the chill. So, after shopping we headed off in search of something tourists should want to see. We started off in the general direction and eventually came upon a crowd of people surrounding some guards on horses. Next thing we knew there were more horses with guards coming and people were taking pictures like crazy. Apparently, we were just in time to witness the changing of the guards. One lady told me, and I'm sure I looked about as clueless as could be, that the guards coming had just left their post at Buckingham Palace and were passing off the duty to the next shift. The guards all looked so young – like barely 20 years old and the horses were all black and very tall. It was interesting.

Fom there, we walked to Big Ben and the House of Parliament, and the London Eye. We saved our money and didn't ride the London Eye (which is a huge Ferris wheel). Joel thought he'd fall asleep, Dara didn't want to be that high, Dade thought it looked a bit scary but still wanted to do it, and I was just too stingy. So, we ate at McDonalds and walked to Westminster Abbey – which I thought was very beautiful.

We continued our trek all the way to Buckingham Palace and saw a few more guards. There was police there too and I have to wonder if the guards could actually protect the queen if needed or if they are just there for the tourists. There are few things like that around London. Dara noticed the red telephone booths and said, "it's just like the movies". Apparently the British are proud of them because you can buy postcards, magnets, and pictures of them all around town. The other thing Dade thought was a bit silly (and I had to agree) was the hats worn by the policemen. They're the big funny looking hats from the old movies. I can't believe they are practical. I couldn't bring myself to take a picture of one; it just seemed a bit too rude. You'll have to take my word for it. After the palace we caught the tube back to the airport (it was the return trip that put the kids to sleep and almost put Joel and me to sleep as well).

All of this we did in 5 hours and we were even more exhausted when we finally passed through security for the final time. No wonder Dara's asleep. Hopefully Joel and I will be able to sleep on the way to Uganda. Sooner or later we should get tired enough to make up for sleeping in a chair – I'm so glad the kids can do it. If we had it to do all over again, we would have rented a room for the day at a hotel near the airport and showered and rested. Oh well, we live and learn – at least we should. So I know it's not Christmas yet, but I'd like to say "and to all a goodnight!" We've arrived safely and I'm off to bed. (at least I wished I were – in reality it's only 6:55pm in London and our plane doesn't depart until 9:15pm – but we're getting closer!)