2025 Faith Leap - Chapter 2: On our way!

 

2025 Faith Leap - Chapter 2: On our way!

PSA: As I don't have control over how widely the link to this blog is shared, I decided not to use my children's real names. For those of you who know them, you should be able to tell who is who by context. I let the kids with me choose their nickname.

"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" - Philippians 4:13

An acquaintance recently shared her success in developing a skill that she had tried and failed to develop multiple times in the past. The difference this time was that, each time it got difficult and she was tempted to quit, she would quote Philippians 4:13 to herself. She related that this simple act helped her to keep going while drawing on the Savior's power. I have thought of and applied this often this last month as I have sought to overcome so many seemingly-impossible obstacles in this faith journey. I am grateful for her example and testify that, when I have consciously laid my burden at the feet of my Savior - asking for His strengthening power - I have seen miracles. 

THE TRUTH (Highlights)

• We enjoyed a wonderful Holiday season all packed into one week
• Preparing and packing for this trip was often debilitating, but God shows up when we invite Him in. We are so grateful for all we were able to accomplish and how miraculously everything has panned out thus far
• We began our trip to Georgia on Friday, December 5th. Leaving CJ behind was brutal. The trip was far from smooth sailing - more like an endless yo-yo of catastrophe and tender mercies.
• We arrived in Georgia early Sunday morning and attended Church at the small branch near our AirBnb. It was cup-filling and inspiring - such amazing people here.
• We stand amazed at the strength beyond our own that we have been gifted thus far.

PRAYER REQUESTS

• The Church was registered as an Organization right before Richard was transferred here nearly 20 years ago. We learned at Church on Sunday that The Church has just applied to be recognized as a religion here! All the saints in Georgia are praying for the application to be accepted. 
• Please pray for our friends Alina, her daughter, Armine, Susanna, Norik, and the rest of Varazdat's family. (See Chapter 3 for more details)
• Pray for the Mission Leaders to receive direction on how to put us to work while we are here. (We had interviews with the 2nd Counselor of the Mission last night). Pray, too, for the Saints in the Branches here. It is amazing and inspiring to see the faith new converts exercise as they accept callings that, back in Utah, they would rarely be considered for until they'd had more time to acclimate to their new faith. So much asked of them so quickly can either serve as a growth accelerator, or it can cause burn out that leads to them disappearing. So pray for their growth.

THE WHOLE TRUTH (more details than you could ever want)

Preparation and Holiday Celebrations

How does one prepare to move a family across the world for several months? As we don't yet know what we don't know, we will likely have a better answer to that question at the end of our trip when experience has shown us what we missed. 😝 (Edited to add: after a few weeks here, I’d advise to consider the draw power of US items before bothering to pack them. We brought outlet adapters, but I didn’t even think through the fact that my grain mill would draw too much power to work here. 🤦‍♀️ This was the one large/heavy indulgence I allowed myself and it was all for naught. There go my dreams of attempting to bake gluten-free alternatives to gluten-centric Georgian favorites 😭 With the extra weight I would have saved, I wish I’d packed a ball and pump, and some art/craft supplies) Admittedly, for awhile it felt too big for me to know where to begin. Shout out to Richard - who booked our accommodations and rental car, changed our phone plans, got the ball rolling on adjusting our financial investments, car maintenance, haircuts (including the dog, and excluding me - I went to a professional. Though, I hate what she did, so maybe I should have let Richard cut mine too. Sigh. I just keep reminding myself that hair grows...). Richard even ordered groceries to be delivered to our apartment upon on our arrival. My primary focus through November was surviving the end of the school semester, arranging as many playdates for the kids as I could fit in, and preparing for a whirlwind week of Holiday celebrations - so that we could celebrate together as a family.

The kids each chose one Christmas Tradition they did not want to miss. Thanksgiving week was also Christmas week: we enjoyed a Christmas Lights display, held our Christmas Eve Bethlehem dinner on the floor in front of the Christmas Tree, exchanged gifts, watched our favorite Christmas movies, and enjoyed crazy games and activities with our extended families. It was a perfectly delightful (and distracting) week! 

And then, all at once, we were up against the wire and I couldn't ignore the mountain in front of me: Packing. I think I did a pretty good job of thinking through what we would need, what we could do without, and what we could purchase in Georgia. I spent a lot of the week gathering, purchasing, and rethinking. I went through all of the kids' schoolwork needs for the next semester, trained our Gecko-sitters (thank you, Benches!), we prepared a temporary legal guardianship affidavit to ensure any of CJ's needs can be taken care of by my Mom, and we transferred his records to my Brother's ward.

It took 2 full days of packing and repacking, but I did manage to pack everything on our list into our selected luggage and keep it to the allowed weight limit. 

Saying Goodbye

On Friday, December 5th, our journey commenced. Have you ever played "Good News/Bad News"? This game adequately sums up our travels. It seemed that, if it could go wrong, it did. But, with effort, we were able to see many tender mercies sprinkled among the hard:

Good News: We arrived at the Salt Lake airport on time and without incident, and got checked in easily. (Our checked baggage weighed in at exactly 250 lbs! A miracle! And, yes, this means that, with our maxxed carry-ons, the combined weight of our luggage was almost as much as our family

Ha!)  

Bad News: We said a tearful goodbye to CJ and Mom. Letting go of the embrace with my amazing 16 year old was one of the hardest things I have ever done (I'm sure you missionary and college student moms and dads can relate)

Good News: All of the security people were so nice. Before we left, CJ and I were joking about TSA and I mentioned hopefully that maybe TSA is taking a page from Utah's DMV who have been working hard to overcome their negative reputation. This seemed to be true!

Bad News: One of our carry-ons got flagged and had to be searched. It seemed they thought my curling iron was a weapon.

Good News: They have so many amazing healthy eating options in the Salt Lake airport now! We got to eat at Vessel Kitchen (one of our favorites) one last time. Salt Lake airport is a trek, it is true, but I actually think the redesign is really well done in comparison to the other airports we experienced this trip (Munich's airport has a huge food court building but it is before security. How many people want to stop and eat before they get to their gate and know that they are good to go?). SLC Airport was also beautifully decorated for the Holidays. It felt very warm and inviting.

More Good News: Because the flight was full, they asked for people to volunteer to check bags. We had two bags that we didn't actually need access to until we arrived in Georgia, so we were happy to have less to worry about while navigating airports. We also learned that our flight was 15 minutes ahead of schedule.

Bad News: We discovered upon Boarding that our flights had been changed - adding an extra leg and 10 hours of travel time to our trip. Apparently Detroit's entire system had crashed (our next destination), and they were experiencing all sorts of errors.

Good News: The women at the Delta Desk so kindly worked overrides to get us back on our original flights.

Bad News: This took them 20 minutes - so we were the reason our flight actually left 2 minutes late, instead of 15 minutes early. 😝

Good News: One of the women at the counter had the foresight to recognize that, because of the last minute flight changes, there was the possibility of some mix-up/delay with the luggage we had just checked, so she ran down and got them back to us - bringing us back to 5 carry-ons.

Good and Bad News?: On the flight to Detroit, Richard and I decided to torture ourselves by watching "Home Alone" (neither of us had seen it in years - there is a lot of language we hadn't remembered 😔). It was painfully cathartic. 

Good News: a kind steward overheard us discussing how to navigate the Detroit airport to our connecting flight and stopped to give us directions - including where we could buy gluten-free food and warning us that, despite our allergy notes on our tickets, airline catering in still lagging a little in options so it would be good to be prepared with plenty of food, just in case. 

Detroit

Bad News: By the end of the first flight (4 hours), "Miss" was already so tired and ornery! I was worried about what the remainder of the journey would look like if she had already reached the end of her rope and we hadn't even left the country yet.

Good News: We found there was a Chick-fil-a in the airport - that helped improve everyone's mood.

Bad News: I stayed at the gate with all of our luggage, while Richard took the kids on the shuttle to pick up dinner. While they were gone, Delta announced that Air France has a strict 26lb total carry-on policy, so everyone needed to line up to get their luggage weighed. (We had specifically researched carry-on limits before we left and the only countries listed were China and Singapore. Sigh). I couldn't possibly carry all of our baggage by myself, so I called Richard and they rushed back to help me.

Good News: We were able to get weighed just in time and, once again, checked our 2 heavier carry-on bags - with assurance they would arrive in Tbilisi with us.

Bad News: Just as we got settled back in to our seats, they announced that "Bob" needed to come to the desk. He and Richard jumped up, grabbed their boarding passes and passports, and headed back (we were seated a long way from the actual gate because it was a full international flight - lots of people waiting). Shortly after they walked away, we heard another announcement that the entire Brown Family needed to report to the desk. We couldn't leave any baggage behind, so the twins and I gathered everything up and hauled it across the terminal again to join the others. We arrived just in time to hear the woman there chewing out Richard for Bob not being checked in on the previous flight...How was that his fault? We all checked in together, they scanned all of our boarding passes, and waved us all through. We assume the error had something to do with the last-minute SLC ticket adjustments, but we had no control over any of that. I don't know why she was so angry. She then scanned Bob's documents and told us we were done. I asked if she still needed the documents for the rest of us - as she had called all of us over - and then it was my turn to receive an earful - she exasperatingly explained that the only reason she called all of us was because we didn't come when she only called Bob, so she had to call us all over in order to get us to obey...What?!? They had jumped up immediately and hurried over! We were floored by her impatience. But - 

Good News: all of the other employees were super nice and helpful. And we discussed with the kids the importance of giving the angry employee grace. Because of the system failure almost all flights were delayed. She had likely been dealing with frustrated travelers all day, and was likely working much later than she had planned.

Bad News: Our flight was no exception - it was delayed by 1.5 hours. Our layover in Paris was only 1.75 hours - which meant that we were going to miss our connection. So, we were rerouted again. What was extra frustrating about the change (in addition to the extra leg and 10 hours of travel time) was that we had seen the option of the flight through Munich and had opted to pay an extra $300/ticket for the shorter travel time. Hindsight.

Good News: There was a vacant seat next to Miss on the Flight to Paris and the kind Frenchman on the other side was happy to let her use it to lie down and get a good long nap.

More Good News: Our Gluten allergy was honored on this flight, the dinner was delicious, and we were served first - which allowed us all to settle in to sleep that much sooner. (This being the longest flight - 8 hours - we told the kids they needed to sleep rather than be on screens). We all got about 4 hours of sleep - not bad for a plane, I think.

Paris, France

Bad News: The walk through the Paris airport was accompanied the entire time by Miss wailing over her ears hurting.

Good News: I had anticipated difficulty with ears so I had with me everything that I needed to treat them (it just took some time to kick in)

Bad News: Security yelled a general announcement to the entire group when I asked if it was going to be a problem that I had just refilled my water bottle at the water-bottle refill station directly before we entered the line. (I guess I should have known better. But also, why do you have it there if it is going to be an issue?)

Good News?: His coworker came through behind him and told me that, if the water was for the kids, it wouldn't be a problem. But we decided we didn't want to risk the next employee siding with the first guy, so just guzzled it. (Actually, I think this is Bad News. The most frustrating part of security is that I feel like there is never consistency - definitely not between airports, but also not even within airports (here's lookin' at you Seattle and Qatar - from our last trip to Georgia). It seems every employee makes their own rules and there is no way to know what is going to be required of you. You were required at the last one to take off your shoes, so you try to be proactive and they yell at you for slowing down the line by taking off your shoes...sigh.)

Bad News: One of our carry-ons was flagged/searched again. A different one this time. I had forgotten that I had saved an orange juice from the previous flight.

Good News: But the lady who searched our bag was super nice and let "Kroc" quickly drink it.

Bad News: The Paris airport is ridiculous. It feels like a giant rat maze in which their goal is to get you completely turned around so that you don't have any idea what direction you are facing. (It looks like maybe it is under construction - so maybe it isn't always that way?)

Good News: Our layover was long enough to actually have time to play Charades, and observe a couple of stow-away birds. This helped improv moods significantly. And I guess we can also look on the bright side and say that the extra flight to Munich means we get to add one more country to our "Been To" list...

Munich, Germany

Bad News: If Paris is dubbed the Rat Maze Airport, Munich can be dubbed the Unnecessary Circles Airport. We got off of the plane and were trying to figure out which direction to go. The transparent doors to the Left were locked, so we went to the Right and followed the signs to get to the Bus that would take us to our correct Terminal. We walked the full perimeter of the current Terminal all the way back to the other side of the locked door where we started to descend the staircase to the buses. On the way, we stopped at the restrooms. Miss and I went down a small corridor. Bob and Kroc went to what we thought was a mirror-image corridor. They were gone for long enough that we started worrying and were just about to go looking for them when they appeared and informed us that the corridor actually led to a door that took them down several flights of stairs and several more corridors before they arrived at the restrooms. The Bus made zero stops before looping around back to where we boarded and on to our Terminal. And then we walked FOREVER to our gate. Because we were forced to switch airlines (to Lufthansa), we weren't allowed to print our last boarding passes ahead of time with all of the others. So we followed the signs to the Lufthansa help desk - and they took us in a literal circle. The desk ended up being at the beginning of our Forever walk, but the signs did not indicate that. So many circles! The designers of the SLC Airport were looking better and better.

Good News: There was a free play area for the kids. (Amazing how they were all certain their legs were about to fall off until we arrived in the play area and then they suddenly had all the energy to do all the things. And, yes, you'll notice in the picture that they are mopping the floor with their bodies. They helped the janitorial staff out in this way at every airport 🤢) We were also able to find one restaurant that had food we could eat. And Kroc and I got a decent nap in during the 5 hour layover. (Which, it turns out, we were grateful our layover was that long as it seemed to take 5 hours to navigate the airport).

Neutral News: Neither the flight to Munich (1.5 hours), nor to Tbilisi (4.5 Hours) had video screens or snacks we could eat. The kids considered this bad news. But the lack of screens meant that we were more motivated to attempt sleep, and we had packed plenty of our own snacks, so I would say this was good news.

Arrival in Tbilisi, Georgia

Good News: After 30 hours of travel, our arrival in Tbilisi was met with Christmas lights in the corridor - a happy surprise. (This was the first sign of Christmas we'd seen since we left Utah and it was unexpected as Georgia does not celebrate Christmas at the same time/in the same way as the US).

Bad News: They detained Richard at Customs but forced the kids and me through. They were really mean about it. That was a little scary. I am grateful that I had been to this airport before, and that it is small, so I decided that we would just head to the baggage claim and Richard would figure out to come looking for us there. It turns out that he had interest due on a Traffic ticket he got in Georgia when we were here 4 years ago. He thought he had successfully paid it online before we left the country, but apparently no.

Good News: The 2 Carry-on bags that we had checked in Detroit made it.

Bad News: All of our other luggage was lost in transit - spread between Munich, Amsterdam, and Atlanta.

Good News: The Lost Luggage lady was SO nice. It is no small thing to be greeted with a friendly smile and reassurance as this lady helped locate and expedite our lost luggage. She was such a blessing.

Bad News: our credit card was declined multiple times while trying to pay for the rental car. That was stressful!

Good News: It eventually went through - it apparently just needed time to process that we were in a new country…?) And the extra time required allowed for Richard to have a great conversation with the dealership guy. Also, our rental car is wonderful - it is the same make and model we have at home, so we are used to it, have lots of space, and, unlike our last trip to Georgia, the Rental company seems legit and the car only has one dashboard light on. 😆

Upon reflection, I stand amazed at how well we all managed during our travels. While there were times that felt a bit like watching Rapunzel's mood swings, overall, the kids had amazingly good attitudes. With every new set-back, our response was usually laughter. I know that Christ gave us strength beyond our own.

Church at the Avlabari Branch

We finally arrived at our AirBnB (which is spacious and lovely) a little before 7am on Sunday morning. At this point, we'd caught our second wind (fifty-ninth wind?), so we decided to attend church before allowing ourselves to crash. Miraculously, in all of my repacking at home, we had our church clothes in one of our carry-on bags! (Feeling the overwhelm, I intentionally asked God to help me with packing. And He did. We had every little thing we needed for our travels. I am so grateful to Him). Our church shoes were among our lost luggage, so we all wore tennis shoes, but a lot of the Branch members were also in tennis shoes (Georgians are very practical), so we fit right in. Richard wore gym pants on the plane, and his belts were in our lost luggage. But, another miracle was that we happened to find a brand new/never been used belt in a previously unnoticed pocket of the backpack we borrowed from my FIL! It was a miraculous gift and sign to us that Heavenly Father wanted us at church that day. (Thanks, Greg!)

Church was cup-filling. Here is a small group of loving, welcoming saints. Perhaps a blessing of small numbers is that it is easier to recognize the value of the one. Between them, they speak at least 5 different languages. That could be used as an excuse to segregate/keep to themselves. But, instead, they do whatever they can to give and receive love. Where they cannot communicate with words, they go out of their way to communicate with smiles, hugs and gestures. It is a beautiful and sacred thing to experience. We have much to learn from them. It is also a unique experience to listen to church through a translation device. The twins both slept through the meeting - but everyone was very understanding. (I actually had to force myself not to look at Miss because the way she was sprawled out on the chair - front and center, with her legs spread as wide as they could go - would make me laugh. I wish I could have found a way to sneak a picture of her, but I didn't want to risk being rude.)

The Feels

We have now spent two very relaxed days attempting to overcome jet lag (which has been harder than we expected). We've played all of our packed card games multiple times, learned that we have access to a fair amount of content on BYUtv and Angel Studios (yay!) and some English movies on Amazon Prime, taken a few walks (the sun has finally come out after continuous rain), and enjoyed video calls with family and friends. (The kids wake up every morning by 6am wanting to chat with someone back home. Let us know if you are up for a 7pm call Utah time!). 

Tbilisi is an old city that still displays plenty of soviet-era/economic scars, and anywhere in the world in winter feels less welcoming than summer. It is hard to be surrounded by people that do not speak your language and whose culture is so different from your own (the entire city smells of cigarette smoke and the Georgian language tends to sound gruff - like everyone is lecturing you when you don't know what they are saying). Foreign sounds of the passing train, packs of stray dogs, and screeching cats wake us throughout the night. And we miss our loved ones at home. All of this has contributed to a little melancholy that we've had to consciously choose to overcome. The kids have done a fantastic job of accepting our peace offerings of khinkali (Georgian meat dumplings), Tarragon soda, Switch time, and endless calls to their brother. (Sorry, CJ, if we are too much! It is only because we love you!). We are focusing on being grateful that God is sending us to a place out of the big city as, at heart, we relate more to the country mouse.

As "9 Days to Neptune" would say "Consecutive Days without a Ridiculous Catastrophe: 0"  😜

but also, Consecutive Days without a Miracle: 0 ❤️