Delayed

Flight to Chicago? Great! We arrived at the airport in plenty of time to catch our flight. And the highlight of the morning was the family line at the security checkpoint that let us breeze past hundreds of people waiting. I did feel a little bit bad for all the people that still had an hour wait ahead of them. But not bad enough to join them.

We were all smiles...

and super excited (Jack) to be up in the air. As we were taking off Jack decided he needed something to hold on to. He started with both hands gripping the arm rest but eventually settled for my arm.

Our flight to Berlin? Not quite as good. We waited at O'Hare for four-and-a-half hours as our plane was delayed nearly two hours.

Everyone was excited when the plane finally arrived,

but the damage was done and our schedule was thrown off. So our once "perfect" plan for getting plenty of rest and adjusting easily to the time zone difference was thwarted. 

Once aboard the flight bound for Berlin we scoped out the in-flight entertainment, unpacked our essentials and settled in for a long night. Evie eventually fell asleep and had a couple good two-hour stretches. Jack, who regularly claims he wants to stay up all night, was sound asleep for the last few hours of our air time. Between movies, Sean managed to  doze. Me? I was wishing we'd bought a seat for the baby. Let me just say that having a one-year-old on your lap for 9+ hours is a bit much. BUT, the Lord provided stamina (believe me, there were a couple moments of crying out to Him for relief), and we all deplaned still very much excited for the next step. 

Which was off the plane, down the stairs, onto a bus where we were packed together like sardines, and into the small square room known as customs. There were four doors, four agents and about four hundred people. After gathering our luggage, we were warmly greeted by Dave, Manu and Dan. Dave and Manu are members of the church here in Berlin and Dan is another Amerikaner joining us for KIBA. 

It took two large vans to bring us and our luggage to our building. It took two deep breaths to will ourselves to climb the 72 stairs to our apartment.

Once settled and rested, we ventured out to find some air conditioning. It was 90 and humid and our apartment is on the top floor. Electricity is very expensive in Berlin so air conditioning is rare. The boys waited until we were all ready to go.

The streets of Berlin are full even without our nine additional people. See the red brick on the left side of the sidewalk? That's the bike path. Don't get in the way of the bikers.

Our exploring took us to a mall where we wandered as many floors as we could

seeking relief from the heat.

We ended our evening with a birthday dinner for Brian at a Greek restaurant. The waiter brought out olives and bread while we waited.

Evie insisted on trying an olive.

but decided she didn't like it after all.

Despite what Evie thought, the food was delicious!

In addition to a respite from the heat, our exploring served as a way to keep us all awake until 8:00, the absolute earliest recommended bed time for your first day changing time zones. At 7:30 we all crawled into bed in anticipation of a full day ahead.