As a lot of you know, the girl in the picture with me is my best friend, Rachel. :) We have been through SO MUCH together! I would have not traded all the ups, downs, silly times, and serious times with her for the world. About a year ago, she got engaged to Lony Dorce from Haiti. So throughout this past year wedding plans have been in the making. Well...This upcoming Saturday, Dec. 17 is the day! Unfortunately due to finances and my dad's health, I can not be with her on her wedding day. I am extremely sad about it to. No "sister" wants to miss her sisters wedding. I was going to be the maid of honor, I had my dress, and was so excited to go... But God works out things for his Glory, and we have to just trust that there is a reason for why I am not with her. And I just support her from home. So since I couldn't go to Haiti with her, I decided that I would spend her last two days in America with her, helping her pack and get the last min things in place for when she left. It was good bonding time for us, and I think the extra help went a long way with getting the carry-on's, luggage, and wedding crates packed and all. Let me tell you... It was interesting packing those crate things. I am so proud of her, she has had to leave a lot behind and I know going through all the things you have gotten from friends and family and things that are personal to you to decide what to leave behind is hard. Sadly, she had to leave A LOT behind. Poor thing. There has been a lot that has happened that she has had to push through, but God has made the way! So, Monday morning, I got up and was at her house by 9:30 in the morning. We started out by running errands and picking up some more things that she would need for the trip. Then came home and started packing one of the crate things of stuff for her house that she could take. We went through and made piles of "have to takes", "maybe", and "do not take"... That part wasn't to bad. She did great with choosing. Then we had to get all of it in one of these gray crates...
Okay... so out of all the "have to take" pile...this is HALF. lol. So needless to say, we had to go buy another one. Even then we couldn't get all her towels and stuff in the second one so they ended up going into everyones suit cases a little at a time. Lol. After working on this a while, we had to stop and go to her grandmothers to help her pack... This was kinda fun. I enjoyed seeing her pull all this stuff out of her closet and making little comments like " I just have way to many clothes". It reminded me of my grandmother. We packed her a little bag...(which later turned into a larger bag so rach could put more of her stuff in there).
So after having her packed, got passport info and all of that, we headed out to make one more stop at her aunts house for a few mins and then back to pack up some more. After packing most of everything in the crates, we packed them in the truck and then stopped by the airport to weigh her large suitcase and the two heaviest crates out of 4 just to see where we were weight wise...
Let me tell you... These may look small in the picture... but they are HEAVY and BIG lol. Also the drop off part at the airport was closed so we had to park and lug these things all the way up to the entrance... a good little walk. The whole time we were both saying we wish we had a luggage cart...didn't see any so we just kept going.
SURPRISE! Your overweight... Lol. By 8 pounds...not good. In all with the three pieces we were a total of 16lbs. over. Soo... this means repacking and redoing some things, or just taking some out. We sat there and took out little things of each one to see what we would have to take out when we got home to get it to 50lbs even.
Poor Rachel trying to zip back up. Somehow when you pack something one time, you can never get it back that way again. So we load everything out to put back in the car and guess what we see in the corner tucked away...
It was like..."are you kidding me"...lol. So after this...we got home and both of us needed a break. Prob shouldnt have taken one...but we did. We decided to play one of our fav games "monopoly" and made a salsa to eat with chips. We mixed sour cream and this authentic salsa that she got from her aunt and it turned out so good! A great evening snack.
Looks nasty but it was actually really, really good. Lol. We played a game and did a few other things and then I decided that I would go home and try to get some rest. I was back up the next morning and met her at her storage unit to sell her couch set and stuff. After that it was back to running errands. We ran around to several places all morning. By the time we had picked up more suit cases, gone to order suits, and some other stuff, it was like 2 when we got back to the house. Now it was time to re-pack and pack some more and clean.
Now... she is at this very time actually 1:25, boarding her last flight from Miami to Haiti with her parents and grandmother. We thankfully didnt have a "sappy" goodbye... I know that may sound horrible because TRUST me...we really do miss each other and love each other a lot, but we were both so exhausted. I'm sure it'll hit soon... it started to hit home when she called me for the last time before getting married a little while ago this morning. She and her family have had a emotional and crazy experience themselves to...including getting to pensacola last night since they had to be up at 3 to get at the airport, and thankfully going to check the luggage one more time and finding out that Haiti wouldnt accept the crates and that they were still over weight... talk about a nightmare! They had to go spend MORE money on duffel bags and repack and reagrrange... It was terrible. Took them 3 hours... finally got to bed around 12 and was up again at 3...
I wish I could experience this exciting event with her... but I wish her well as she goes about his new adventure! I hope to see her within the year!!! I love you so much Rachel... Thank you for being a best friend and for all of the fun times!!!!
MEMORIES... <3
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