Saturday, July 23, 2011

Sunburn in Scotland?


That's right, today was so sunny I think we all got sunburned.  It is summer, so it is to be expected.  It got up to about 73-75 Fahrenheit today. We were invited out to a barbecue on a farm in the country side outside of Dundee.  We are certainly now on our cultural journey.  We were thankful for the invitation, and certainly had a fabulous time! (as can be seen in the following picts)



Jennifer relaxing with new friends

John Spencer learning a new Sport

Megan still picking on the smaller kids

Off to the races

Old habits....

Picking flowers

Sophia driving

Sneak attack

Friday, July 22, 2011

We Found a House!

The Lord answered our prayers.  Over the past 36 hours we looked at 3 houses, turned in paperwork on one, and received our approval.  We then went by the Real Estate agency, paid our first month's rent, and picked up our keys.  I didn't realize how important it is to have a place to call your own, so that you could spread out and relax.  We've included a few pictures.  Thanks for all your prayers!

Scott (for the fam)

The kids explore

A view from the west

The Living Room

The Dining Room

Our Kitchen

Friday, July 15, 2011

We have arrived!!!

We are quite excited, as we have finally set foot on Scottish soil without return tickets!  A sobering thought.  We are convinced that the Lord has called us to this work.

We arrived in the Edinburgh Airport at about 8 am.  It took a while to get through border control, and to collect our bags.  Wow, 5 carts filled to overflowing, what a sight (I'll post those picts later, along with a group photo.)  Then on to the car rental counter.  There we had to call on our Gumby powers (flexibility) to keep it together.  The cars I reserved (supposedly) can only be driven by those who are 30 years or older.  My plan was for David and myself to drive the women and children to Dundee.  He is not 30 yrs yet, so he can't be a driver.  Megan stepped up, and took one for the team.  We were also told that there is no way we would be able to fit 23 bags in those two cars, even if we didn't have but 2 passengers total.  Those guys had never met a sleep deprived group of determined MCOers, who had learned over the years to make it work with what we have.  I have included a few photos of the packed cars, an impressive sight.  At any rate, we made it to Dundee, after lunching in St. Andrews, at about 15:15.  We then drained a few ATMs, walked (we were too tired to run) a couple of errands, and settled in to catch up on some sleep.  That's where the team is now and where I am heading now.  Peace.  scott

This is the biggest car I could rent!

The luggage is overflowing!

Every nook and cranny was filled.

Relaxing for a meal in St. Andrews.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

The beginning of our journey...

Our new life in Scotland began with a dash!  At about 14:08 I received a call from Angie Taylor. "Continental just called me saying that due to delays the 19:00 flights would not get us to Newark in time to make our connection to Edinburgh.  They want us to try to make the 16:30 flight.  What do you want to do?"

After giving myself a precordial thump (a hard thump to the chest, used to restart the heart), I told her that I would call her back in a minute.  I had only just returned to MCO Row (otherwise known as Battery Gaillard), from running errands.  My plan was to take the next 45 minutes to finish packing and then take a shower.  This would've left me a good 15 minutes to chill before packing the cars for the airport.  Alas,
This was not the story that the Lord was to write.  I dashed over to the McGaha's to talk to Donna & Megan as I saw them walking into the house.  I got thumbs up from them to try to make it work.  Next after a bit of searching, I found Jennifer upstairs talking to Libby.  After she agreed that the best plan would be to attempt the earlier flight, the scramble commenced.  The rides had to be  rearranged and called, the bags had to be packed into Suburbans, and the Goodbyes needed to  start.  Friends gathered to wish us well and to send us off with the Lord's blessings.  While we were wrapping up at the Galloway's, Megan, Donna, David, Barbara, and Todd were loading our 20 bags into the two Suburbans.  Donna and Megan comprised the first wave of our weary clan to wash up on the shores of Charleston International Airport.  Todd hung back to shuttle us there.  Thankfully, Beth waited for us to get our things together, so that she could drive us to where Todd was waiting.  As the beads of sweat poured from my forehead, I reasoned that we should just have Beth drive us to the airport, so we could save time unpacking just to repack into Todd's ride.  Finally, we were off to the races.  Then the wise voice of my wife grabs my attention with a simple question: "Who is picking up Angie?". I remembered that I had promised her that we would get her to the airport.  Whoops!  After verifying that she was not with Todd or Megan, we realized that we had one more stop before CIA.  Thanks to the NASCAResk driving of our friend Beth, we got there with plenty of tome to spare!  

Waiting to greet us there were David, Barbara, Megan, Donna, and Regan with Caleb, Marie, Ezra, Kate, Elizabeth, & Malachi.  It felt so good to get there.  It did make it much better to have some of our friends there to see us off.  It was especially good for John Spencer and Sophia.  I give Regan a special thanks for bringing the kids to say Goodbye.  Caleb and Kate mean the world to Sophia & JS, and it was a difficult to watch the Goodbyes.  I think I felt my heart tear.  (Especially after the picture we received from Regan that made Jennifer and I both tear up.)  We try to remind each other that it is really more accurate to see this more as a "see you later" than a "have a good life..."  Nothing goes to the heart of a parent deeper, than to see your kids hurt.  

In God's providence, we were somewhat rushed, so although it was hard, we were pushed to make it through customs so that we wouldn't miss our flight.  We rushed through to eventually find that our flight was to be about 2 hours delayed.  That was only the tip of our proverbial iceberg.  It seems that storms were reeking havoc in the north around New York, so they were not allowing any flights to arrive via southern avenues.  The new plan was to approach from the west, which meant we were to flight to Cincinnati first, then refuel.  We are currently doing just that, flying to Cincinnati.  We are scheduled to arrive in Newark at about 21:45 at the earliest.  We pray,that we will still be able to make the 22:30 flight to Edinburgh.  We will see.  So far we have planned the way, but He is directing our steps.  

Thanks to all those that facilitated our packing (with Kid watching), helped us pack (cramming bags and helping us get the weight right), and got us and our things safely to the airport.  We love our community and would not have started our journey without your prayerful support.

(Written on the plane on our newest gadget.)  

Our Girls

The Crew plus 2

Our Guys