We made it!
On Sunday, October 8, we finally arrived in Italy! The long airline trip went well and we were amazed by God’s graciousness during the journey:
- We had three more bags than we were allotted but the airline only charged us for one.
- Since we were a family, we were allowed to board our flights first and get to the front of the line at Passport Control in Germany.
- We made all of our connections and all 11 pieces of luggage made it.
The kids didn’t sleep a wink on the 8-hour plane trip to Germany because they were too stimulated by video games, videos, and buttons. They slept a little in the Frankfurt Airport and on the plane trip to Italy. They were almost at their breaking point with little sleep but they persevered and were troopers. Once we arrived in Italy, they slept 12 hours their first night.
Ben and Joe catching some shut-eye in Frankfurt, Germany.
Joe chillin’ in the airport.
Our first full week was full of activity and at times a bit overwhelming! It's been stressful trying to jump through bureaucratic hoops in a language we know very little of. Fortunately, the Lord has been very gracious and we were able to get our paperwork submitted for our "Permesso di Sigiorno" (residency permit). In two weeks time we will have a meeting with immigration officials to review our documents and have fingerprints taken. We also applied for and received a "Codice Fiscale" (fiscal code). This code will allow us to transact business like buy a car and rent an apartment
My (Paul) stomach did a lot of churning this week before each of these meetings. But during each meeting I would feel a strange peace and calmness come over me. It's almost as if the Lord was saying "I've got this." I truly believe this is the Lord answering your prayers.
This past week we’ve also been connecting more with our teammates and exploring our new surroundings. This next week we will work on securing an apartment to live in and getting a car. Once we have those items, we will start jumping into ministry.
Getting our toes wet in the Mediterranean Sea.
Ben and Joe enjoying gelato for the first time.
Ciao!