Whew!

What a WHIRLWIND the past few days have been! I guess we looked bored so Pastor Chris thought he'd come and shake us up a little.

On Saturday morning we woke up at 6 am and started getting ready to bring Pastor Chris back to UB and the airport. His flight was scheduled to leave at 6:30 pm that evening, or so we thought. We had made plans to have lunch in UB with another missionary family we had only met through Skype. We were jazzed, ( I know I was) to have the day to shop, eat and enjoy each other's company. We had even found sitters for the kids so there were visions of uninterrupted adult conversations dancing in my head.

Ok, so back to Saturday morning, 6 am. I'm in the kitchen, sleepily stirring my coffee and Pastor Chris comes in and says something to the effect of, "Man, I really messed up big time". He informs me that his flight was leaving at 8:30 am, not 6:30 pm like he thought. Ooooo, boy.

Let the record show that I did feel genuine pity for the man. But during the week of his visit he had been teasing me about girl stuff, hormones and whatnot (he has 3 daughters) so I also saw this as a good opportunity to get back at him. Don't worry, I waited until the initial shock had passed and my jabs were very tasteful. I think I only mentioned senility once.

Pastor Chris immediately got busy on his laptop, calling and skyping various airline offices around the world, and managed to change part of his flight schedule from Korea to Seattle. The only part remaining was from UB to Seoul. We would go to UB as planned and try to get it taken care of there.

Laissez les bon temps roulez! (That's Louisianan for let the good times roll)

We had an uneventful trip to UB (about 2 and a half hours), unlike the missionary family who drove 10 hours from the countryside to meet us. They hit a horse.

Upon arrival in UB, we went straight to the MIAT airline office. MIAT is the only Mongolian airline company and it stands for Maybe I Arrive Tomorrow. Just kidding. Well, not really. Especially in this case.

To make a long story short, they couldn't help us but they sent us to another office. The lady there took about 3 hours, during which time we ran some other errands, found a place to stay and canceled lunch, but she finally gave Pastor Chris a pass. Not to be confused with an actual boarding pass, this one was just a pass of some sort but apparently it worked because Hetee put Ps Chris on a plane bound for Korea the next morning and we haven't heard from him since.

There were perks to Pastor Chris being delayed, though. We had an incredible supper with him and the a fore mentioned missionary family at a restaurant called "The Silk Road". And we also got a nice hotel room out of the whole deal. And extra time with our friend.

Hetee preached in UB yesterday and we spent one more night. It was a pretty leasurely trip, without the kids. We took advantage of this and got my eyes checked at a private eye clinic. I had been having trouble with infections and a yellowish growth on the whites of my eyes. The dr (elderly Mongolian guy) checked me and said it's nothing serious. I just have to massage antibacterial ointment into my eyes twice a day. Don't you wish you were me?

The dr thought he was so funny. When I told him my name he said, "melamine?! You're that harmful substance!" Like I never heard that one before.

We heard it was snowing in Darkhan so we left UB and started home as soon as possible. We didn't want to be on an icy road in the dark. The threat of icy roads proved to be only a threat so, as the sun broke through the clouds, we slowed down and enjoyed the drive home. We sang, worshipped, cried, talked about what we would do with the money if we won The Amazing Race, and stopped and took pictures like tourists.

It was a great weekend, a nice change of pace and a time to reconnect as a couple.

Pastor Chris would be proud.