Getting to Georgia... no not the state, the COUNTRY

I don’t remember exactly how long it was since we had seen my dad, but it felt like ages. He had gone ahead of us, two or three months to start work and to check out the city. So when we got to the airport, we all were very anxious to see him at our final destination.
I remember taking so much stuff with us to the airport. My mom was flying with 3 girls and probably 11 pieces of luggage. At that time only two check bags and two carry-ons were allowed on the flight. So we had to pay extra for our 3 bags. Not to mention that they were all classified as oversize (they were these huge green tuber-ware crates with all kinds of essentials that we thought we had to bring). Since my dad was working for a non-governmental organization we only had a certain moving allowance. So, we had to take all that we wanted in Georgia with us on that airplane. This was extremely hard because we had 5 years worth of stuff in our house in Ohio and we had to choose what we wanted to take with us. I think it really only included most of our summer and winter clothes, a boom box, food supplies (things that they said we couldn’t get over there like Oreo’s, peanut butter, brown sugar, spices and other things of that sort). It really felt like we just up and left our house and all of our animals, our cat, dog, fish, rabbit and turtles (I know, we had a whole zoo going). All we really had was ourselves, the clothes on our backs and God.
Our flight plan was so messed up. They had us flying all the way to Atlanta Georgia, back up to Chicago, and then to Istanbul Turkey, where we had a 12 hour layover, and from there on to Tbilisi Georgia. To top it all off, I was on a totally different flight from my mom and sisters. With a little patience however, we were able to get me on the same flight as my mom and all of our bags made it to Georgia in the end.
I do remember that grueling 9 hours on the airplane. I think it felt like forever to me and my sisters. We had three seats in the middle of the airplane though so Natasha and I slept on the floor underneath our seats, and Jill spread out on the chairs. I don’t think I would be able to get away with that now though, so it was quite nice to have the opportunity to sleep most of the way there. What was even worse then the 9 hours on an airplane, was the 12 hours inside the airport in Istanbul. Mind you that any layovers more than 12 hours were granted a hotel to stay in. We weren’t allowed doing anything except for sitting in this one open space and watch people carry on with their busy lives. I do remember there being a Burger King where the Whoppers cost about 1,000,000 Lira. This of course looked like a lot of money, but only cost about $2.00. I also remember sitting in the airport for hours just writing in my journal.
I was really happy I had gotten a journal before I got out to Georgia. That journal was probably my best friend. It’s a pity that I still do not have it. Somewhere it is locked away in a storage unit deep inside some random box. Of course, I don’t know when I’ll ever be able to get it back. For a 12 year old, I definitely had an opinion and a lot to say about the whole move.
We eventually got on our flight, and flew what felt like 30 min to Georgia. Once we got off the plane, into the airport to get our things and then out of baggage claim, we all saw my dad and ran towards him. I think the first thing that I said as we walked out of the building (other than “Hi, Daddy, how are you?”) was “What?! They don’t have dryers?” I saw some of the apartment building’s balconies with clothes lines and clothes strung up on them close to where we parked the car. Yes, that’s right; we went the next 3 years without drying our clothes in a regular dryer.

We stuck all the pieces of luggage in this one very small car, and squeezed us in another very small car and drove off to where my dad had been living for the past 3 months. Of course it wasn’t a very smooth car ride; we were dodging the pot holes and dogs in the middle of the road. Not to mention that the streets were pitch black because the power was off in the city again. I remember right then what my dad had said when he turned around from the front seat to talk us four squished in the back. “Girls, guess what? We live on the 8th floor of an apartment building not too far from here. The bad news is that the power is off and we are going to have to lug all of these suitcases up all 8 flights of stairs.” So once we got there, we grabbed a couple candles, and started lugging. I think that’s when we all lost 5 pounds!
“The sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of deer, he enables me to go on the heights.” – Habakkuk 3:19
Well, we went the heights alright.