OUR EUROPEAN ADVENTURE: Preface

We are back from our big summer trip.
Europe.
It was amazing, let me tell you!
But before I post the gobs of photos that I'm dying to share with you, I have to tell you a quick story.
It's the explanation of the alluded to "troubles" {on facebook} that we had in Spain where Esteban and I were separated.
It's the backbone of our entire trip.
It's our little MIRACLE!
Ahem....
We've been planning this trip for a while.
Buying various plane tickets, reserving well-researched hotels, contacting family and friends who will be in our predetermined destinations, downloading countless apps on our phones that will aid in our travels, etc.
But, in our myriad of "to do's" we missed on HUGE one.
Figure out what kind of visa is needed for Bolivian passport holders.
Dang.
Big one.
I know, I know...how could we miss that???!!!
But that's where our little MIRACLE comes in.

It's called a Schengen Visa.
Esteban needed one.
He didn't get one.
We had NO CLUE.
Fast-forward to July 1, 2013.
Flew into France, NO problems.
Italy.  NO problems.
Croatia...Greece....Turkey.....Spain. 
NO PROBLEMS.
Miracle.
It wasn't until Spain that we even heard about this visa and started thanking the Lord for His provision.
But then, we had one more twist in the story that made us EVEN MORE thankful.
We went to catch our flight from Spain to our last destination, the UK.
It turns out that this little Schengen fiasco finally caught up with us and Esteban could NOT enter the UK without it.
Thankfully, no big deal.
He hung out with his cousin, Juan Pablo, in Madrid and I hang out with his cousin, Ximena, in London!
The airline changed his departure city from London to Barcelona (there weren't any flights from Madrid for a week) free of charge, and we both had a great time with the aforementioned family members.
But that's not what really makes this a miracle.
If some of you remember, we had some flight problems before the trip even happened.
We had weather issues and ended up missing our original flight and had to leave 2 days later and fly directly to our 2nd destination of our "well-planned" trip.
Paris, France.
Where did we originally plan on flying to?
London, UK.
So, we truly beleive that if it all would have gone as we had planned...we would have never gone!
Yes.
This is embarassing for us.
WHAT WERE WE THINKING??!!
But in the end, we have to focus on the big picture.
Our God is bigger than the organization of 26 countries in Europe.
Our God is able to transcend our human error.
Our God cares about silly things like a "trip of our dreams."
And yes, our God can teach us a lesson that doesn't have to be learned "the hard way."
We feel so humbled, blessed, grateful and full of praise!
Hopefully now the following loads of pictures will mean more to you as they do to us.
They shouldn't have happened.
But our Lord wanted them to.
And so HE made it happen.
Not us.