What Was I Thinking??

Note to self: In the future never, ever, EVER book to fly out of the Buffalo airport on July 1st!



Hannah and I left home with what I thought was plenty of time. Normally it takes us about 3 hours to get from home to the airport so this time, wanting to err on the side of caution because of the holiday, we left 5 hours early. You guessed it. Even that was not enough time! When we were about an hour from home I turned on the news and the 2nd item was the l-o-n-g border waits. Uh oh!! The bridge I normally cross at has taken me 10 - 20 mins and the wait was said to be 2 1/2 to 3 hours long!! I felt sick to my stomach and immediately called in my prayer warriors. We kept in touch through the long wait and even though we missed our initial flight, all went well and we eventually made it to California.

The wait for us to cross the border took 3 hours to go 1.7 km. I know it was 1.7 km because each time my GPS clicked down another 10th of a km. I cheered! It was a beautiful day and once I calmed down from my initial shock and disappointment, Hannah and I decided to make the most of it. We sang, danced to some great Disney CD's (yes, it is possible to dance in a car seat), chatted with people in other cars and those out just walking and stretching their legs, and I gave her some snacks. Normally bottles are in mommy's arms but since I couldn't get to her I passed it back. We were stopped...again, when I noticed her bottle was upside down and she was grinning. I turned off the car - we weren't going anywhere anyway, and went back to check out the damage. She'd made a little pool of milk in her car seat and was happily splashing away. Heh!! She was doing SO well that I couldn't do anything but laugh! By this time she'd been in her car seat for 5 hours and there was no end in sight.



We finally made our way to the bridge and through customs. It was a pretty view from the bridge so I snapped a quick pic of Niagara Falls.


I quickly called my prayer warriors and updated them that we were across the bridge and now heading to the airport. There was one flight to our destination but it left in an hour and 20 mins and we were still 30 mins away from the airport. I figured we might be spending the night in Buffalo and then heading out the next day.

After parking our car and unloading our luggage, car seat, stroller, etc. we took a shuttle to the terminal. We went to the Southwest counter and even though the flight was now leaving in just 20 mins(!!!) they said we could run and make it! We jogged through the airport, unloaded for security which is no small feat when you have a laptop, CPAP machine, stroller, diaper bag and BABY to get through but, we did it! We made our way to the gate and would you believe made it!!

We were the last 2 on the flight and as I entered the plane all I saw were middle seats available. Oh no! Hannah was being SO GOOD but to ask her to sit quietly on my lap between 2 people for the 4 1/2 hour flight to Vegas was going to be too much! Thankfully as I looked longingly at people for a seat I spied the very back row where a man was sitting with 2 empty seats beside him. Phew! It ends up he has an 11 month old daughter and was only too happy to have us sit with him as he was missing his little girl.

Hannah was great on the flight and slept about the last hour of it. Once in the Vegas airport I found out that we were on stand-by for our destination and all the flights that day were completely booked! More praying! (I want Hannah to learn that God cares about all situations including our travels so we often stopped to say a quick prayer. Her little 'ahh-men!' at the end is precious!!)

We eventually caught a flight to a different destination not too far from our original one and are now here! Our luggage went to the first place but we were able to pick it up on our way to M3's last night.

Even though this was not the day I had planned, God wasn't surprised and was with us every step of the way. We arrived safely and are now enjoying fun, fun times with the Salsa family!



I'm sure you're excited to see pics of Friday's fun so I'll try to get a post up before calling it a night. Lots more info and pics on M3's blog

To all who were praying for us...THANK YOU! God heard your prayers and allowed us to arrive only an hour and a half after our original arrival time! God is so good and I thank Him for the opportunity to share with Hannah praying and praising Him through all things.