Week 1

The beginning of a looooong day...

They are already bored

Kayla knows something is happening

Time to say goodbye to Kayla....  see you in Italy Kayla!!

9 hour layover in Frankfurt.  The boys crashed but Whitney could not sleep!

Whitney's best friends from Germany!!  They drove to the airport to see us during our long layover.  It was so great to see them!!  When we left Germany we wondered if we would ever see them again. 

The next few days...
I didn't take pictures over the next few days but here's what happened.  We arrived in Venice after 3 flights and being awake for almost 48 hours.  We were so exhausted!  We waited over an hour for Kayla only to find out that she never made it.  No one could tell us where she was.  We didn't know if she made it out of KC, Chicago, Frankfurt or if she was even alive!  We didn't have phones that would work in Italy so we couldn't make any phone calls and the people who worked at the airport or with the airline were completely unhelpful and uncaring about the fact that our dog didn't make it.  It was very upsetting!  We had no other choice but to leave the airport with no answers!  After driving for an hour and going through multiple steps to get access to get on base where our hotel was we FINALLY got to our room. All we wanted to do was take a shower and sleep for 3 days in a nice, comfy bed!  However, accommodations were less than ideal.  We had 1 Queen sized bed, 1 cot, and 1 pull out couch bed for all 5 of us.  Our shower curtain kept falling down as we tried to take showers before going to bed and Whitney was throwing up.  Not a nice picture.  We finally got all the kids cleaned up and tucked into "beds" and then Jeremy and I could focus on Kayla and try to figure out what we could do.  I figured out that I could get on facebook from my phone still and I immediately messaged my sister, Tara.  I gave her all the information that we had and asked her to investigate what happened for us.  As soon as I messaged her and knew she got my message, Jeremy and I could finally relax and fell asleep. When we woke up about 6 hours later I checked my phone and had good news!  Tara found Kayla for us!!!  She had to get international calling on her phone in order to make a million phone calls for us but discovered that she was left in Frankfurt!!!  I don't even know how she was able to figure this out... it's a miracle!  But that's my sister for you!  She is amazing!!  However, finding her was only half the battle.  How do we get here?  I had a message on my facebook page from a friend I knew when we lived in Germany.  She saw my facebook post that we had a 9 hour layover in Frankfurt and wrote on my page that we should have let her know because she lived 10 minutes from the airport.  So, I asked her if there was anyway she could pick up Kayla for us and watch her until we could figure out what to do.  I knew it was A LOT to ask someone to do but didn't really know what else to do.  She immediately said yes and went to pick her up that night!  It was Sunday night when she got her and, unknown to us, the airlines had already booked her on a flight back to the U.S.!!  They made my friend drive to multiple places to sign her out plus pay 200 EURO to get her!!  I couldn't believe it!  I'm so grateful that my friend could pick her up for us... if not, I'm not sure we would have ever seen her again!  We put out messages on every facebook group we could think of to see if there was anyone driving from Frankfurt to Venice that could bring Kayla to us but no luck... so, Friday morning Jeremy rented a car early that morning and drove to Frankfurt to pick her up.  The GPS said it was only 8-9 hours there but he hit terrible traffic.  It took 13 hours on Friday and 12 hours to get back on Saturday.  However, Saturday night we had Kayla back home with us!!  It really was a miracle and could not have happened without my sister and my friend.  They were truly angels this week!!

Our first Italian meal at Sette Santi.  It was dinner but felt like breakfast....  still suffering with Jetlag!

Vicenza Middle and Elementary Schools
The elementary school has over 800 kids and the middle school almost 200!!  There are 7 second grade classes!!  This is a much larger school than we are used to.  But, it's nice that the schools are right next to each other so the kids and go together to the same place.

The kids new schools

Our temporary home

Getting on the bus for the first day of school

Typical Italian breakfast mmmmm.....

While Jeremy was driving to pick up Kayla for 2 days we discovered the bowling alley right next to our hotel room

Aiden beat everyone!

Watching Spongebob while we bowl

Finally!!!  After an entire week we are finally reunited with Kayla!!!!  

Our new church

After church we drove to Padova (about 20 minutes away) to take Kayla to Anna's house to stay until we move into our own house.  It was SO great to see Anna, her beautiful home where she grew up and still lives, and to meet her family who are so lovely!  Anna made us a yummy cake and we stayed and visited with her family as long as we could until we had to leave and say goodbye to Kayla again. This time we know she will be in good hands and will be so happy though.

Anna!!!