6 months ago we had a very tearful goodbye with our dog, Tundra at the airport in Washington. We had planned to bring her to Haiti, but after finding out an employee we had spoken to about airline regulation for pets had misinformed us, The one thing we promised our children they wouldn't have to give up, had to stay behind. We all sobbed our way to security, to the gate, and onto the plane. We were stuck with knowing we wouldn't ever be able to meet the tempertature regulations of 45-85 degrees F between Washington and Haiti. There would never be a time temps would be warm enough in the states while being cool enough here.
We were able to get in touch with a pilot friend of my dad's who offered to fly us to Haiti after the quake to see if this was a possibility in February. After a lot of back and forth, we settled on flying back to PA April 20th, as previously scheduled because we are still here under our passports which means we can only be in Haiti for 90 days at a time. This would also give us another opportunity to visit family and friends over Easter.
Still having to redo all of Tundra's medical forms and APHIS health certificate for approval exportation(which could have been complicated because Haiti has no written regulation, no website, no proof of their regulation, which APHIS requires). This time, however, no questions were asked, papers were signed and we were ready.
So after a lot of family and friend time and a few ministry meetings, 3 a.m. Friday morning, we loaded into a single engine plane with Tundra. We had 10 hours in the air scheduled...Me, Jack (our pilot) 2 girls, a nervous dog and teenage co-pilot. All 6 seats taken.
First leg...4 hours 20 minutes, took me almost 2 hours to get used to feeling like I was on the top of a roller coaster ride. We watched the sun rise, saw Camp David, and many other beautiful sights til landing for fuel in Georgia. My first two hours felt like I did running my marathons..."what in the world was I thinking?", "this is never going to end", "I think I might die before this is over", how am I ever going to get through this?"... on and on.
Second leg...from Georgia to Ft Lauderdale, 2 hours 20 minutes, seemed like the longest. I couldn't wait to get out and move. Jack had to deal with all kinds of flying around areas to avoid the space shuttle launch sight all so it could be cancelled later in the day. Listening to all the air traffic control talk over my headset made me decide sleep was the best option, still felt like the longest leg. The stop in Ft. Lauderdale was a nice break for fuel and moving around.
Third and final leg...Ft. Lauderdale to Haiti, 4 hours. Wow, so many beautiful sights. I was afraid to fall asleep and miss something really cool. The Carribean Sea is so beautiful. Haiti is even more beautiful flying in. This was the best leg by far.
The kids did a fabulous job all day, what troopers!
So here we are...Mission complete! Into Haiti, through customs, dog out, no problem.
One thing I realized after I gave the dog her 3rd dose of doggie downers and she finally went to sleep, God knew what He was doing. She would not have come out of a commercial flight well. As nervous as she was with us right beside her, on her bed and with medication, who knows what it would have been like for her on a commercial flight, in a kennel, with no medication, and without her family. Really such a minor detail in all that we've done in the past few years, but sometimes God allows us to go through some really hard things so he can do better things. Sometimes, God tells us no and we don't understand it at the time, but it's for our own good for a better way.
We're glad to have our family complete here in Haiti. Now we just have to get Tundra used to having a pesty little puppy sister around:)
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