24 August 2016
Our leaving…
There was nothing graceful about our leaving Sydney, it
wasn’t at all how I imagined or wanted it to be. I know having 7 children and a
newborn had something to do with it. I know we couldn’t comprehend how to pack
our lives down into suitcases and tie up all the loose ends of living… so I can
now 3 months’ after our departure, laugh at our journey and hope we have learnt
from it. I am putting this on the blog
mostly as way of an apology, because I know we rushed many important goodbyes.
Before baby, we had two garage sales and decluttered a lot,
had armfuls of vaccinations, and sorted and packed and we enjoyed the last
weeks of living the very full life we were used to…
After baby, in between cuddles and feeding… we knew there
was a lot to do and we felt stressed and caught out by the administration that
needed to be done. We had amazing
friends who understood I think more than we did how behind schedule we
were. Joy flew up from Melbourne twice
to help us. Jen, Bec, Fiona and Welch
family helped out with our kids. Jen
lodged forms to be apostilled for us at the Dept. of Foreign Affairs. In fact Jen was our every day, do anything
baby holding angel! Jane was our “bag
lady” she sourced, picked up and delivered 24 second-hand suitcases to our
house so we could pack. God knew and
provided just what we needed when we needed it.
Our Lifesource church gave us an amazing farewell. I know friends were
covering us in prayer.
Then the plan was to pack up house in Sydney, visit Perth to
say goodbye to family there, return to Sydney for two relaxing nights and then leave for Peru. Our plan even
sounded restful!! I even thought we had
contingency room in our timing for a night away together.
BUT… after weeks of packing we finished moving out of our
house at 4am just 4 hours before our flight to Perth… we had midnight to dawn packing
friends… and instead of a kettle and a toaster sized pile in the carport… we
unexpectedly left towering mountains of boxes in our carport with instructions
for family, friends and neighbours. Our
kids slept that last night at Jenny & Drew’s place with Stacey, our 10 week
old, having her first sleepover in a laundry basket! We were so tired I packed all my shoes and
was left wearing my socks (until Jenny lent me some shoes). Chris packed all his clothes and so wore his
jeans and pyjama top for two days packing and then on the plane to Perth.
We had 45 mins sleep at Jenny’s then we woke up our very
excited children and Chris drove us in our Commuter to the airport. He was soooo
tired that he unloaded all ten of us and our luggage at the wrong domestic
terminal! We then reloaded us and our
luggage back into our van and trailer and drove to the Qantas terminal…
unloaded again - then we missed our 8am flight!
During the 2 hour wait for the next flight which Qantas put us on free
of charge (a miracle of Grace), we debriefed and practised our airport family security
drills (to stay together as a unit) as we had been taught in our Pioneers’ field
security course!
We had a lovely time in Perth. It was great to see family and friends
including my 94 year old grandma and share what we were doing. Cousins spent fun time together. Sam broke his finger trampolining ☹ Family were patient with our lack of
headspace ☺ and we were overwhelmed, frustrated, tired, excited… AND standing in faith as
we actually didn’t have the funds required to go to Peru yet according to
Pioneers guidelines. I don’t really
remember talking about this with anyone… It was too late for that, we had moved
out of our house, sold most of our stuff, said goodbyes…. The rest was up to
God!
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| Saying farewell to our 94 year old Grandma in Perth (3 generations) |
God was always good to us… as we left Mum and Dad’s to go to
the airport, my heart wanted just a bit more time to have a cup of tea with my
sisters…. our mobiles rang and it was Qantas ringing to apologise that they had
moved us to a flight two hours later! I got the cup of tea and $150 worth of
airport food vouchers for free C/- Qantas to compensate us!
On arriving back in Sydney we had 36 hours left. We stayed at an Air BNB apartment close to
the airport to make sure we couldn’t miss the Peru flight!! With 24 hours remaining before our flight to
Peru we received the official phone call to say that we had the support funds
to go. My faith was pushed to the
limits… Chris was at peace God would see to it and we know God is always
faithful, but phew!!!!
We spent our last Sydney day in Darling Harbour with our
Pastors John and Anne and some friends, whilst Kirstie and Jen took our son Sam
to the hospital to see a hand surgeon for his broken finger. God was with even our bags, as we so
exhausted we forgot about our snack bag for a few hours in a park, and when we
remembered and returned to the spot our snacks were very safe… they were being
guarded by two security guards on walkie talkies who thought the bag contained
a bomb and had been watching our bag for hours!
As we say in Lifesource Church – “God’s got it!”
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| Our family farewell in Darling Harbour with pastors’ John & Anne (less Sam who was taken to the hospital to attend to his broken finger!) |
Our last night in Sydney before our flight was spent
repacking and labelling suitcases.
Elsewhere friends loaded a truck with our luggage, Drew & his mate scheduled for
the early morning trip to the airport slept on our hotel couch, the clothes
dryer hummed with last minute washing, pizzas were eaten, Sam put the bedroom
air conditioning on 18 degrees to acclimatise to Peru ☺, the baby fed…
Then at 6am Rod and many amazing others arrived to load the
remaining luggage. It took a team and a miracle to make sure our 94 items of
luggage made it on the plane. As the truck was loaded, baby Stacey’s suitcase
was accidentally left on the footpath outside our hotel. It was still there, on a busy road in a not
so safe suburb two hours later when Drew made a dash back to find it. At the check in gate Jen managed our luggage
check in with amazing ability and patience!
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| Some last minute baggage labelling with our friends helping the morning of our final departure |
At the departure gate we had a minute to say goodbye. In one last moment of ungracefulness… With
loaded arms, I dropped my cup of tea on the ground leaving our friends standing
in a puddle as we hugged, then hurried thru airport security!
On our way to the gate we stopped momentarily at a food
stand to feed our hungry teenagers who had missed breakfast. Moments later we saw our plane boarding. We skipped eating and hurried to join the
line, and left a hand luggage suitcase behind… I have to wonder why God chose
us to go to Peru!
(Bag miracle number 3 was that the bag left behind at Sydney
Airport contained supplies to get us thru the many hours we expected to be in
customs when we landed in Lima… BUT praise God customs let us go thru without
inspecting ANY of our bags (see previous blog post on that story)… so the kids
were fine as the supplies were not needed!)
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| Chris' agreeable coffee mug the first morning after waking up in Perth |
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