The Adventure has Started!

Just a quick one to let you know we arrived in Delhi an hour or two ago.  It wasn't without adventure, but most of it happened in the US!  About a mile down the road, we got the email that our Muskegon to Chicago flight was canceled.  We regrouped and drove to Chicago instead.  That flight was delayed and we were a little concerned we'd miss our connection to Delhi.  But we got in Newark with enough time to catch our flight to Delhi and the rest was smooth.

Long (14 hours) but comfortable flight to Delhi.  Customs was a snap.  Our driver was waiting for us.  A little tricky finding our hotel, but a quick drive a block or two the wrong way down a one way street :) and we were there.

It's now 11:30 pm Tuesday night and we'll try to sleep before a 5 a.m. pickup.  Tomorrow we drive 12 hours to our first visit in Tikapur, Nepal.

Ode to the Sprinter

Eleven years we’ve been partners, you and I.

You’ve carried daughters, cousins, friends, students, coworkers

Suitcases, exercise equipment, dogs, tools, wood, furniture, Goodwill bag after Goodwill bag

You bear the scars of sticky candy, spilled pop, smeared chocolate, sour milk, toilet training fails, dog scratches

You’ve witnessed the joys of excited travelers, new babies, good conversations, funny jokes

You’ve also witnessed ugly fights, kicking and screaming, and way too many “Why aren’t you buckled?”s

And oh the selfies.  The 100s of selfies...

You’ve traveled nearly every corner of North America, almost always faithfully—but sometimes too tired to go on.  Many with our family, but some as gifts to other families.  Colorado, Florida, Cape Cod, New York, Outer Banks, Kentucky Lake, Canada, Mexico.

And, El Guapo, you’ve even flirted—all those times you flashed your lights when The Beautiful passed you on the road.  The only one who truly understood you, herself also driving around a crazy family.

You have impressed and embarrassed and intimidated and surprised and scared and confused many.

“This is your PERSONAL vehicle?”

“Are they all deaf?”

“Will you give me a ride to the airport terminal, please?”

“Which retirement home do you drive for?”

“Are you Tulip Time transportation?”

Our time together has come to an end. 

It’s been quite a ride...

(Epilogue:  As I drove it away today, the muffler came loose and started dragging.  All of this sentimentality quickly turned into "Good Riddance!")

The Whys

Earlier I said I would expand on the "whys" of this trip.  Other than the big questions of where and what we'll pack, this is the question we get asked the most.

Each of us wrote a list of our personal whys and I'll share some of the common themes:

1.  Get Tan (this may or may not have been on my list) :)
2.  Spend Time as a Family Selfishly, I'm really looking forward to some dedicated time with the six of us.  Ella will be close to beginning her senior year when we return and the time has just gone too quickly.  I expect it will be bumpy adjusting to so much time together, but I'm hoping we soon hit a new normal of really enjoying each other.
3.  Relaxing and Resting  We all (Mike most of all!) run a million miles an hour when we're in Michigan, so we're all looking forward to some time on the beach with a good book (or maybe an iphone :/ )
4.  Learning, Learning, Learning...about different cultures, places, people.
5.  Spiritual Growth? Awakening? Passion?  This is our biggest why and the toughest one to wrap our arms around.  We want our relationship with God to be more--more authentic, more passionate, more trusting, more of what He wants it to be rather than what America tells us it should be.  So we're attempting to go into this trip with an openness to let God speak to us and show us whatever He wants.  We hope to come home with an increased understanding of who He is and His plan for each of us.  We want to spend time with Christians around the world and get a bigger picture of God.  And our big prayer is that the same will happen with the girls--that they will understand the importance of deeper things and feel a stirring for why God has them on this earth.

I've already begun my list of "God sightings" with a pretty amazing one.  For a number of reasons, I delayed getting our Indian visas.  When I finally got around to it, the consulate said 7-10 business days and we were down to only 6 business days with the holidays.  The processing center was also not encouraging.  I kept telling myself this was my opportunity to trust God (and tried to) but I was almost physically sick from the stress of all the what ifs.  The applications were supposedly brought to the consulate on Christmas Eve but then I got an email on December 29 that they had just arrived there.  At this point, I figured there was no way.  But later THAT SAME AFTERNOON I got an email that the visas were complete and in the process of being overnighted.  So not only did we get them in time, but with time to spare.
Secondly, Mike has a connection with a manufacturing company located in India--Turbocam--which also has a number of stewardship things going on in India/Nepal.  They stepped in and within days had set us up with visits and drivers and hotels.  So our plan is to fly to Delhi on Monday and then spend a couple of weeks around northern India and Nepal.

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

Our blog title winner has been chosen by our esteemed panel of Lanser Daughters.  We've been keeping it top secret for the past few days, mostly because I just haven't gotten around to the blog.  In an amazing effort of both quantity and quality, the Aukema family became our lucky winners with their entry of:

LANSERS GET LOST! 

(or is it "Lansers, get lost!"?)

The girls have also declared that our blog format is boring, so watch soon for a roll out of our new and improved Lansers Get Lost blog (don't worry, Grandma--you won't have to do anything different to keep receiving it!)

Aukemas--keep an eye out for an amazing gift, which will be arriving shortly!

A Contest (for prizes)!

OK, so "Lanser Travels" is boring.  Global trip? Worldwide adventure?  Boring...boring.  But we know we have some creative friends, so we're asking you to come up with a name for our adventure. The girls will be voting on their favorite and we'll determine just the perfect prize for our winner. You have until Tuesday night!

And on a different note, a little chat about prayers:

Part of my delay in writing a second entry is that the last couple of days have been extremely stressful with lots of changes and glitches--showing me how much I need to depend on God through each step of this, and also showing me how poorly I'm doing at that :)

I want to really emphasize that we understand what a gift it is to be able to do this trip--we have the health, job, and resources to attempt it.  That makes me feel kind of guilty asking for prayers.  BUT, the ability to do this and the excitement about it in no way diminishes the fear and stress and hugeness of this all.  So it would mean the world to me (pun intended!) if I knew you were praying for us each time you think of us or each time you read this blog.  Thanks!

The blog is live!

Starting this was harder than I thought.  This is what I stare at every day:

And then I wake up in the middle of the night with this fear that the route won't work and spend an hour mentally reworking everything.  So then, by the time I sit down to try to write about it, this is how I feel:



But we'll give it a go!

Probably the easiest way to introduce this is with the 5 Ws.

WHO:  All 6 of us (seems pretty obvious, but I did have someone ask if we were taking the girls along!)

WHAT:  A year long worldwide adventure, combining some business stops and a learning sabbatical for Mike with some dedicated family time and recreation.

WHERE:  We'll first be heading south and east to chase the warm weather.  First stops are in Nepal, India and Sri Lanka.  From there we'll continue to SE Asia and Australia/NewZealand.  In the spring, we'll head up to China and then start working our way west.

WHY:  Lots of different whys which I'll write more about in another post, but basically to experience and grow in our understanding of a variety of places and cultures.

WHEN:  Shooting for January 5, but it'd sure be nice to have a plane ticket so we know!  We're finally getting close but still haven't pulled the trigger.

So there's the nutshell.  I'll try to expand on each of these in the next few posts.  If you're interested in following along, feel free to subscribe on the left.  I'm so proud of myself for figuring out this technical detail, so I would love it if you used it!

Now that I've finally gotten over the hump of entry #1, I'll try to write a little more consistently!

It's a Zoo in Houston!

The Sprinter drama continues... This morning Mike informed me that there was another flat, but he and the guys put the spare on before leaving. Thankfully we found a great tire repair just down the road and had it patched in no time!

Then it was on to Houston! Our first stop was the Health Museum, with lots of exhibits about the human body. We saw a 4D movie about all the gross "bugs" that live on our bodies.

Ella and Celia played a game where the most relaxed brain would push the ball toward the opponent. Celia went into "possum" mode and was unbeatable. It was as if she'd died with her eyes open!

Then it was on to the Houston Zoo. Faith got this amazing close up of one of the bats!

The aquarium area had this tube you could crawl into to be one with the fish.

And also a tube to join the prairie dogs.

We also saw our first raindrops in almost a month! Both Mexico and Texas have had droughts. Unfortunately for them (but fortunately for us!) it was only about 5 minutes' worth of very light rain.

We're now taking an evening swim and then off to bed. Tomorrow we begin our trip home, making a stop or two along the way.