We’re here. It’s ten minutes to 1 AM local time here in Czech Republic, our plane landed around 10:30pm and…we’re here. We have spent the last 16 hours traveling from Los Angeles, dragged about 12 pieces of luggage from the Prague airport to the hotel across the street…we’re here. We just had a literal midnight snack, and the kids are awake watching a movie on Bethany’s laptop, but we’re here.

Maybe it’s the jet lag, but in many ways it doesn’t feel real. I know I am sitting here many miles from all I’ve known as home, but we’re here. God has moved and used many incredible Christians to come alongside us to pray for us and to financially support us and now everything we’ve been praying for begins. I know every day won’t be like the first day, but there many new things to experience and to engage in. There are still a lot of “firsts” left to experience–that’s why I plan to write it all down.

This is the first. This is the first of what I hope to be an ongoing journal of what transitioning life to a new country and culture looks like. Lord willing, it will be daily. My hope is that for a year I can maintain some thought, long or short, from our days in Czech Republic. I hope it will be a testament to the Lord’s grace in our lives, what He is doing, how He is working, and just how our lives are being transformed into the likeness of Christ.

So to start things off I want to simply show you a few photos from today. Here’s how our first day traveling to Czech played out, in just a few photos (captions below each):

Here we are on our way to LAX. Our friend John was kind enough to drive. Thanks John!

Here we are outside of the international terminal at LAX. I truly rejoice that both of my kids are looking and attempting to smile for this!

Titus stared at a huge digital wall of awesomeness.

We flew to London!

And this plane flew us to Czech!

These kids slept a lot…thank you for praying!

Every single bag arrived. I accidentally carried the wrong car seat from the airplane all the way to baggage claim, but I was happy to hand it off to another young family. Unfortunately for them, two of their bags were still missing…

Finally a photo of the Prague (Praha) airport from our hotel. Ok, now time for bed!