Atkinson Adventure
Follow
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Emily's Blog
  • Newsletters
  • Buster

The Road to Azerbaijan (Azerbaijan Part 1)

7/19/2011

1 Comment

 
Picture
Emily and I had our ultimate Mother-Daughter trip in late April.  She is posting some "historical highlights" and her own insights on her page.  Check it out Emily's blog here. We traveled with the ever excellent Amy Haley to Baku, Azerbaijan where we visited some amazing people and an incredible country.  Our dear friends, the Mo's, have lived in Baku for 8 years.  Since the Mo's left Texas for the "other AZ", I've dreamed of going to visit.  So when Amy was invited to speak at a women's retreat, she says she immediately thought of me.
Picture
Amy and me
Picture
with Joy and Scott
Of course, I was so excited about the opportunity!  I love women's ministry (and it had been a while since I had been to any kind of retreat) and the chance to see the Mo's on their own turf was...well, you get the idea...I really wanted to go! 


Picture
Emily and Abby
I knew that God would have to supply the funds for this trip, so we prayed and then put out a call!  We let our friends and supporters know what was happening, and within a few weeks all of the money needed for both me AND EMILY to go was provided.  "my God will supply all your need according to his riches in glory".

Picture
Emily on Easter
This all came about in March, and so we went about the somewhat complicated task of getting our travel visas.  Amy's and my visa applications were submitted before we knew that Emily was going, so her's went in separately.  After the 7-10 days that was promised, still no visas.  But we had 3 weeks to go, so we weren't too worried.  After daily calls to the document service in Washington DC (all done by Amy) exactly one week before we were scheduled to leave, Emily's visa was delivered!  What!?!  Would she be going alone?  I think not!  But it was a humorous thought.  Amy was getting a little discouraged, as evidenced by her lack of punctuation (people exhibit their frustration in different ways).  At least she wasn't SHOUTING AT ANYONE.  So 2 days later, our visas were issued!   Whew!  That was a little close!  It was interesting that once we were in Baku, there was much talk about wanting to increase tourism in the country.  I'd say the visa process needs to be addressed pronto!

Picture
Three little cousins...see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil.
These flights were going to be loooong.  The longest I'd ever been on.  Frankly I was getting a little apprehensive the days leading up to the trip.  If you know me at all, I am not known to be the heartiest of travelers, and I'm referring specifically to the motion sickness to which  I sometimes succumb.  Ok, it happens often.  The week leading up to our trip carried it's own stress...we were in Tucson, Barbara, my mother-in-law passed away, we planned and had her memorial service, celebrated Easter, and then finally, the day after Easter, flew to Charlotte, NC, to begin our trip.  God certainly worked out all the details, and I am so grateful.

Picture
Joe and Max at Grammy's memorial service
Picture
Here we are at the Istanbul airport...Emily loved the TurkCell ad in the background.
Our flight went something like this:
Charlotte to Chicago - with barely enough time to get to the international terminal, go through security again, and then discover there are no restaurants inside the int'l terminal

Chicago to Istanbul (Turkey...this was the 12 hour flight...see Emily's post "Flying" for more about this.  I slept most of the time, thankfully.  The flight was followed by a 7 hour layover in Istanbul.  By this time the internal body clock is thoroughly confused.

Istanbul to Baku - Finally on to Baku...about another 3 hours.  Then we were there!  And it was 4am.  I'm just not sure what day it was.

More on Azerbaijan in future posts.
1 Comment
Amy Haley
8/10/2011 10:08:09 am

I'm glad somebody kept track of the details. Good to see you have updated your blog :) It was a great trip. In typical Tina fashion you never let them see you sweat.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Author

    Our current Atkinson Adventure (and we think that everyone should be on an adventure) has brought us to Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic.  Read more about it HERE.

    Because we desire to:
    Accept Responsibility
    Reject Passivity
    Lead Courageously
    Invest Eternally
    in 2010 we began a new adventure with
    Investing Your Talents.
    Read more about it here.

    Picture
    Click to go to the IYT website

    Archives

    August 2013
    June 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    May 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010

    Categories

    All
    Brazil
    Bus
    Buster
    California
    Coffee
    Davis Lar
    Dominican Republic
    Doulos
    Emily
    Friends
    Friends And Family
    Kids
    Life On The Road
    Ministry
    School
    Spirit Mountain
    Travel
    Young Life

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.