Trip Cancelled...

What is the best way to tell some shocking, confusing, and somewhat embarrassing news these days? Have a blog or Facebook and post all your confessions on it. So, here we are... in Cartersville. As many of you know, we should be in South Asia (Ind*a) right now. But, there was one major oversight that we, and everybody else, somehow missed. To be in this country, we need to have visas and we didn't. Through all of our international travels (Mandy - all around Europe; Brian - South America; both - Thailand), we have never had to have visas. It wasn't even a consideration.

So, yesterday, we had our bags packed, said our good-byes to Lydia in grandma's arms, and my dad drove us to the airport in the ice weather. We walked up to the baggage/ticket claim man. We are laughing and having a good time. We just heard that we can check our friend's bags which are heavy through the whole flight. This was great because we had a long layover in Chicago. There we could go out the city and get some famous deep-dish pizza. Then, the baggage/ticket guy said, "Now, can I see your visas?" We said we don't have visas and then he said "you can't go." This is the truth. We felt like we were punch in the gut, breathless, turned upside/down and inside/out.

We finally made it back to Cartersville (without Lydia - we left her at the grandparents for a couple of days) and began talking to other missionaries (thanks, John and Sue), people in the missionary headquarters (thanks, Bobbi Jo), and eventually our team leader (thanks, Cartee). We learned that visa problems happen a lot with this country. Through all this, we are still moving forward and are looking at a trip in May, Lord willing.