We had a wonderful time with our family, soaking up a final week and a half in the  States, but the time came for us to say farewell. We spent several days packing, unpacking, repacking, and ordering things off of Amazon. Our checked bags were allowed to weigh 50lbs. each or a total of 450lbs (not including the guitar). Our final weigh-in was close to 440 lbs!

We had a tearful goodbye to Mimi and Papa Tolbert along with Aunt Allison at the airport, and then went through security which was no small undertaking! Our first flight landed in Chicago around 7PM local time, but it still took us almost two hours to make it to our next gate (there was construction and we had to go through security again). After cleaning out a Chinese restaurant that was about to close for the night, we had a picnic dinner on the floor at the gate of our overnight flight to Helsinki, Finland.

We arrived in Helsinki at 2PM local time which felt like 7AM (EST) to us. We had two hours to get through immigration and we made it to our gate with only minutes to spare! Apparently, we chose the slow line at immigration and had what appeared to be a new officer who wanted to do everything slowly and by the book.

We arrived in Latvia to be greeted by several other missionary colleagues, including our supervisor and his 6-year-old daughter who joined us from Finland, and loaded everything up. We looked like quite the sight with all of our bags! After spending one night at a hotel, we signed the contract for our new flat (apartment) and moved in the next day. The flat looks a little bare for now (it only came with a kitchen table, futon, and queen bed), but expect more pictures coming soon!

We have been adjusting rather well to the time change and weather. It is only a little chillier than South Carolina with highs in the high-50s and lows in the 40s. The time change threw us off a little. For the first several nights, the girls would wake up around 1AM and want to start the day. Over all, our adjustment has gone extremely well and we are grateful for the Lord’s provision!