We're Here!

It is hard to believe, but we are officially living in the Dominican Republic. Our flight arrived last night in Santo Domingo at 9:00pm. We were a little worried, but all of our bags made it. I haven't had a chance to take everything out & make sure nothings is broken yet, but I hope to soon. Right now, we're staying with the Hilgemans, & I didn't want to unload all of our luggage in their living room :)

Today was a busy day... like most days will be this week. We spent the morning shopping for appliances, & we came away with a washer, dryer, fridge, & stove. The afternoon consisted of washing down our apartment floors... we had lots of amazing helpers: the Hilgeman kids, the Simos kids, Jason, & Josh. All the helpers were great because we had to pour water over the entire thing, squeegee, pour sanitizer down next, squeegee, and then pour one more layer of clean water over that. It took 2 hours to complete the entire apartment & in the process we found that one of the drains doesn't work. Also, I don't think I have sweat so much in my life! Later this evening, we enjoyed a home-cooked meal by Toni. Then, around 5:30pm the apartment owner's daughter showed up with our contract & keys to our apartment! (Yes, we did start cleaning before it was officially ours.) We ended up in the same apartment complex at the Higleman's & Simos' on the fourth floor. It was great to get the important things accomplished today. Nothing was too hard, but there is always tomorrow! Anyway... the evening ended with a fun game of bid euchre :)

Tomorrow looks like more shopping. It's fun, but if you know Kurt & I... we don't like spending a lot of money. So, this can be overwhelming. The plan is to head to the capital to the bigger stores so we can find our furniture. Please pray that we find the things we need at decent prices because even though we're in the DR, products can still be expensive since most things are imported.

To end, I want to say a quick "Thank you!" to everyone who prayed for our trip yesterday. It was as smooth as can be & like I said all of our bags are here & so are we. Love you all, & we'll be keeping you updated. Hopefully, we can get some pictures soon!

Katie