We are here!

We boarded a boeing 777 Wednesday night in Atlanta. We had a lot of anxiety over a 12 hour flight to a foreign country and leaving our children for 14 days. We actually had a wonderful flight. Samuel would have loved this--we actually had our own video screen and ear phones to watch our own individual movies or play video games. There were probably 75 movies to choose from. This occupied us for quite a few hours. Once we landed, we stood in line to get our passports checked. I actually have my first stamp-Tel Aviv, Israel. It doesn't seem real

We have finally made it to Israel. We landed at 5:15 pm Tel Aviv time which is 9:15 am in Athens, Alabama. Barry and I have been teasing each other about what day it actually is. We have concluded that yes it is Thursday and yes we have just flown 6500 miles today and we are on the other side of the world. Once the sun came up, we had the opportunity to see some amazing sights. I have to tell you that when flying over Italy, Italy really does look like a ladies boot. Very beautiful. We did fly over France, which I was looking forward too, but we couldn't see anything; the clouds were too thick. We made it to the Greek Islands and the water was spectacular! The water was so blue that the view looked like a water painting. Over one of the southern islands we saw a beautiful thunderstorm from its top side. I attempted to take a picture of it. We flew over Rome, the Aegan Sea and then the Mediterranean Sea. As we approached Tel Aviv, it was amazing to see what a metropolis Tel Aviv is. I always thought of this area not as modernized, but the coast is absolutely beautiful and the airport is very modernized and enormous.

We boarded our bus and drove for a while and reached the old city of Jaffa. We got off the bus and walked for a while taking pictures. We talked about Jonah leaving Jaffa to go Nineva to do God's work. From where we were, the coast of the Mediterranean was beautiful. We followed the coast to the city of Natanya. Our hotel room in Natanya has a balcony, so we opened the door so that we could hear the waves crashing. I can't wait to get some close up pictures from the balcony in the morning.