Hi Everyone --

What a great week! We got our tickets to the US for May/June 2009! All week I have been able to think about having the tickets and being in the US and it has made me smile! Here is our itinerary:

May 15 -- leave after work and drive to Mumbai
May 16 -- early am catch flight to Atlanta
May 16 -- arrive in Baltimore 11:55 a.m. (Delta 1878)
May 16-21 -- visit with Mom and Julia and family
May 22 -- Drive to Bristol, TN to drop off Hannah at Amber's
May 24 -- Fly to Miami and catch cruise with Doug's family
May 31 -- Exit cruise and fly back to Bristol, TN
May 31-June 4 -- visit with Amber and her family
June 5 -- drive back to Maryland
June 6 -- fly BWI to Cedar Rapids (12:45 p.m. Delta 3204)
June 6-11 -- Waterloo visit/work/Dr. appointments
June 12-13 -- fly Cedar Rapids, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Mumbai
June 14 -- Church in Mumbai, drive home

That looks like 4 weeks of vacation, travel, cruising, and visiting. I am excited!

We are traveling all our legs by Delta -- it was by far the least expensive and we also get frequent flier miles. These tickets (excluding the Miami flight) were $1,115. It's almost like we got the trip to Iowa free.

We are still working on our China trip -- our passports and papers are at the embassy in Delhi and are supposed to be ready for pickup tomorrow (Monday). I am not convinced we will get the visas. Also our tour has fallen to pieces since it is costing too much money. We may have to do our own hotel reservations, flights within China, and all our sightseeing. We understand that all prices in China are "soft" and there is room to bargain. We asked for their best price and made a counter offer, and they brought the price down $45 -- about 1%. Too funny! We will made our decision after we get our passports back and whether we actually have visas.

We had 5 1/2 at church today. One guy came and was here about 10 minutes and then left. His dad was having complications and was in the hospital. We are going to Mumbai next weekend -- there is a baptism of one of our home group members. The missionaries are coming Friday night and will teach him all day Saturday. We are also having the CES missionaries from Bangalore here for the weekend. They are teaching our faithful sister to prepare her for a mission and the temple.

I guess that's all the excitement from here this week. We love you and miss you all!
Lucinda