There has been a lot of change this month and it has been fun to be apart of all these new beginnings. As you can imagine it has been pretty stressful too. Moving never is easy, and moving internationally on a tight budget is even less so. But God proved faithful to us yet again and we have a story to prove it.
Once we made the decision to move from the DR back to CR we started making arrangements to sell and/or pack all of our life. At first we thought about paying an international mover so that we could bring everything. This plan was of course ideal because it meant we could bring all of our furniture and appliances to move back into Jone's house (all of her stuff we sold before we moved to the DR), we could easily pack all of our books, keepsakes, and weeding gifts (that weigh a ton), and we could even bring my truck. But that wasn't meant to be. The price was too steep and would have left us close to broke upon arrival. That wouldn't have been a good situation.
Our next thought was to sell as much as we could and then try to pack the rest and pay for the extra baggage on our flight to Costa Rica. This plan seemed like it would be easy enough. It turned out that, with a new pastor and family heading to the DR from Costa Rica, that we were able to help out EDCM and the moving family by selling most of our furniture and appliances to them. The furniture that we couldn't sell to the mission we were able to sell for cheap or otherwise bless Dominican friends with gifts before we left. Even my truck turned into a huge blessing for Nahum and the youth ministry in Higuey as Jone and I decided that we should give it to Nahum as all the money to buy it came from gifts in the first place (thank you for that by the way).
So, scheduled to leave on a Thursday we were planning and packing to bring 6 suitcases (it is still incredible to me that our whole life fit into 6 suitcases). The Saturday before we left we were talking to some friends of ours in the DR, that were going to Costa Rica for Christmas. They had some extra room in their Baggage allowance and agreed to bring two suitcases for us. Then they lamented the difficulties of moving during the Christmas season because of all the baggage restrictions. Surprised by the news, we found out that Copa Airlines has stricter baggage rules during the Christmas season and do not allow more than one bag a person.
Which means we had to scramble to find a way to move our 4 bags. We called Copa to beg, to no avail. Then called Copa cargo to ship our bags, but it was too close to our departure date to make it work. We tried to upgrade to first class which would give us two more "free" bags, but there was no first class on our flights. We were stuck. The only solutions we could come up with were; make a round trip flight to come back to the DR and get our remaining luggage, or bring all of our bags to the airport and cry and beg to let us on the plane, and hope for a sympathetic attendant.
We decided to try plan B (cry and beg) and if that didn't work we would make the round trip. So we get to the airport and are waiting in line, with our mountain of luggage, and realise that we are the only ones with more than one bag a person. We stick out worse than any sore thumb ever. When it is finally our turn at the counter, and I make four trips back and forth to the counter while the whole world stares at me, the attendant at the counter is acting like everything is normal (good sign). He takes our passports. We wait nervously. He asked for our bags. We wait nervously as he weighs the first one. And he says "It's over weight."(bad sign) We both immediately start arguing, because while we might be trying to bend the rules, that isn't one of the rules we are bending. The attendant rudely assures us that we are sorely mistaken and then asks for the second bag. Confused I oblige. Then he asks for the third bag. Even more confused I oblige. He weighs all of our luggage and then types away at his little computer then says that we owe $300 dollars less than if we were paying the excess baggage fees. I quietly hand over the exact amount in cash (that I "happened" to have in my pocket without planning it) and we get on the plane to move to our new home!
God is good!!!
