Chicago

Well....we are in Chicago.

Things were going smoothly....we got through the check in in Mpls in 15 minutes.....the flight was early to Chicago....we arrived safely and checked in there.....

Then 15 minutes before we boarded the plane, we check in our tickets at the counter, and they said we couldn't go. It turns out, M. needed a transit VISA for our 2 hour layover in London....and we didn't know this. So, they cancelled our flight and told us we couldn't go until we had one!

Thankfully, M. has a friend here in Chicago that came to rescue us. Also a providence, was that the British counsulate is here in town, so it made it handy for us to find out our paperwork and try and get things done. The only un-handy part was, we were out of the flight at 9:45 pm, and Tuesday was a holiday....so everything we needed was closed!

(This is their cool curtain...they also have turtles)

Wednesday morning we scrambled to make a couple appointments to get things done by the deadline of 10am. Traffic here is crazy....so it takes hours to cross town. We had to get fingerprints taken....it wasn't available till Friday....we knew that was too late....so we made the appointment and then just stopped in on Wednesday morning to tell them our situation. Again, God provided, and they said no problem....we'll get you in this morning. (It only takes about 5 minutes anyway) After that, we sped back to the counselate to hand in the paperwork....but it turns out that if we hand it in ourselves, it takes 5-10 DAYS! The other option was to have an expedia service do it, but we had opted out of that.

It was now 9:45am. We sped over to the expedia service (we had already had conversations with them the day before trying to figure this all out) and she quick put everything together for us....but then told us we couldn't turn it because is was 10:05am. We had to wait until 10am Wednesday...since we had missed the deadline for that day. *sigh*

So, we called the ticket agency (for the 4th time) and again, re-scheduled our tickets (again, thank God, it looks like they won't charge us for that mistake....just re-book us).

Now we wait.

While we've been waiting, we have had a lot of fun. We took the transit/train and explored downtown Chicago. Went out to eat with our friends, toured their lab, saw Lake Michigan, and today hope to check out Chinatown.

(Hey Fawn...look what we tried for the first time!)

(This is a strange hand dryer...you stick your hands in and pull them out while air blows on them....anyway, I thought it was cool)

So all in all...God is watching over us, and we are grateful.....we are learning faith and trust and patience....and enjoying our time here as an unplanned vacation with friends!