What God did-- Mazatlan Day 1.5

We made it here to sunny hot Mazatlan, had all my prayers answered along the way and am again just amazed that God is in this with us.

1. my brother vacationing in Florida called at about 2 pm when we were driving to Minneapolis to tell me that he thought the airport was in a 'ground stop' for ice meaing nothing in or out- bless this I phone. the perfect timing of this information confirmed with some information obtained from my dad at work allowed us to cancel our hotel rooms in Houston (which had to be done by 4 pm and we would have been too late if we got to the airport and tried to cancel then) because with any delay we would not have made it in time to get the last shuttle... $325 saved

2. the weather got really bad about 60 miles outside of Minneapolis and we had to drive like 50 miles/hour getting us to the airport late which was ok because we already knew we'd be delayed or else i would have been freaked out by our slow crawl.

3. park and fly went really smoothly with a great driver helping us with all our luggage in the snow and ice and wind

4. one of the biggest stresses for me was checking all our bags. having an 'international flight' from minneapolis to mazatlan meant our first bags were free but the website and the lady i called at the airline said because our layover was overnight that we would have to claim our bags in houston and recheck them this morning for our flight to mazatlan. this would have made our first leg 'domestic' and would have costed an extra $180 just for luggage. i was also not really excited about us having to collect all our luggage and spend the time rechecking them in this morning. well we get to the counter, they check our bags all the way through to mazatlan, will keep them overnight and we didn't pay any first checked bag fee. praise God! that is exactly how i prayed (and others) it would go

5. yes our plane was delayed and yes luke wassink entirely forget his bag at home but so far so good in terms of not hitting any major glitches. we landed in Houston around 12:30 which was 2 hours late. we found a hotel with rooms who still had an active shuttle that late who picked us up and we got 2 two rooms suites for the price of the other rooms which included a hot breakfast and really comfy beds. i just wish i could have slept more than 5 hours in it

6. today our flight to Mazatlan went off without a hitch. on time, beautiful weather etc but once we arrive my biggest stress is realized. getting all of us and all our meds through customs. we didn't have the government letter this time so i knew there would be a chance of getting stopped. at customs you collect your bags, put them through an xray and then push a button... green you walk through and red you get searched which usually goes well unless they see something suspicious in your bag through the xray. this is the part that always makes me nervous. well guess what... the xray wasn't working today so we just walked right on through. yep just walked right on through with our $600+meds/supplies etc. praise God! another answer to prayer

7. one guy on our team has a chronic serious medical condition and he grabbed the wrong bottle of pills to bring with him. Elizabeth, my PA friend who is joining us tomorrow, is still at home and we called her before we took off and she is bringing him down enough for the week.

So the 12 of us made it here safely. the other two familes consisting of the next 11 of us arrived a few hours after us with no hassles. One more flies in tomorrow and 2 more meet up with us on Friday making our team of 26 almost all here in one piece. it is has been a logistic hassle for me to get this big team together but it has all worked out well so far. no extra luggage fees, no layover hassles, no xray at customs. our trip could not have been easier. I love being able to tell stories like this and say "Look what God did"

Tomorrow our beloved Hawkeyes play in the Outback Bowl and I think we just secured us a place to watch it a 9 am with our friends Kyle and Ellen. We stopped by a sports bar tonight who had another bowl on their big TV and asked what time they open. The guys said with a laugh, "11, or i hope 11. we're all going to be hung over". Happy New Years Eve from Mexico! At least he was honest. :-)

Tomorrow we have a 'day off' because of the holiday so it will be just rest, football, beach, naps etc for us. The real work begins on Friday. I'll post more in the coming days and hopefully with some pictures.