Our hearts were filled with a whirlwind of emotions:
- sadness, knowing that many of the new friends we have made we will never see again
- excitement to see friends and family in the States again
- emotionally drained from the past month of goodbyes
- stressed, hoping we had thought of everything we should have to pack up our homes in LT
. . . the list could go on.
So, Monday afternoon came. Our moving truck/van was to arrive at 3:30, giving us plenty of time to travel the hour and a half to the Vilnius airport. At 2:30 the guys were getting ready to bring the girls' stuff over to our place so that all the luggage would be downstairs and ready to load. But at 2:30 the sky turned black. . . the season of thunderstorms had begun about a week earlier. So, the guys decided to wait 10 or 20 minutes until the downpour passed. It was a good thing they waited. What followed was the craziest little storm I've ever seen.
The rain came . . . mixed with huge chunks of marble sized hail . . . and the streets were instantly flooded.
Yup - that is hail that you see floating in the water in the street.
The storm only lasted maybe 25 minutes . . . but the damage was done. Cars began turning around to avoid the sections of street that were now flooded. Some still ventured through. Many stalled because of the water intake to their engines.
We began to wonder if our moving van might get stuck in traffic. As 3:30 came and went we began to worry a little, knowing our tickets to Germany were non-refundable.
Here is a photo of some of our teams luggage waiting downstairs (remember, this is the luggage for just Matt, Jason and me). We still needed to get the luggage from Kellie and Tiana. We decided at this point it would be better to just load up our stuff once the van arrived and then drive to the girls place.
And then our van arrived. . . except that somewhere there had been a breakdown in communication within the company we had called. Though we had communicated that we would each have 75 Kg of luggage, this is what arrived:
It was smaller than a mini-van.
Our stress level began to rise as we remembered the fact that Monday was a Lithuanian holiday and it had been difficult even to find one driver willing to take us to Vilnius.
To make a long story short, after several rather tense conversations between the company and our Lithuanian co-worker in Vilnius, (who had made the original reservation for us), another van soon arrived and we were on our way.
There is more to the story of obstacles faced on the way back to the States but that is the most exciting part.
But, once we made it on our connecting flight from Germany to Portland we were able to relax and enjoy the rest of the journey home. Luftansa gave perhaps the best inflight service I have ever seen.
We touched down in Portland and were more than a little overwhelmed (in a good way) with the huge crowd of friends and family waiting to greet us at our gate. There were signs, balloons and flowers - and many tears, smiles and big hugs.
Thank you so much to each of you who made our welcome to the States a moment we will treasure forever!
