Day 1!

Well, we are finally here. Today saw family C move themselves, 10 suitcases, 4 pieces of hand luggage, 3 car seats and 2 pushchairs (sorry - strollers) to Maryland. We hadn't quite comprehended how much space that all took up, but neither had the Embassy travel section! After an hour and a half at the hire car company, we finally found one that could take it all (just). The picture just doesn't do it justice, it was huge.

Not only did we find the load capacity limits of various hire cars, we also found the stamina levels of our children. After getting up at 7am Olivia was still going strong and asking for a story 'because she wasn't tired' at 0230 the next day, picture 2 was taken at 0231.

At the airport Immigration Point, Stu saw the immigration official stapling white cards into our passports. The Embassy had pre-warned us that these pieces of card were essential in our dealings with any and all US agencies in the first few weeks. Stu said to the very stern chap 'Ah - the white cards, the Embassy has told me that those pieces of card are more important than life itself'. There followed a short pause. The official stopped his rigorous stamping duties, looked up and very seriously stated 'that simply is not true sir', he then looked worryingly at the children before continuing with his stamping duties.