Touchdown

From K's recent email:

Dear family and friends,

First off, a BIG thank you for your prayers! Yesterday's travel itinerary was every bit as unnerrving as we anticipated, but we had a number of "miracles" along the way that let us know God has us in his line of vision.

First off, our ride was 10 minutes late! She had lost her car keys. But, P and I had pulled off the packing like a team the night before, so at least we weren't scurrying around at the last minute. The house was spic-and-span for Roger's visit (the "big Physics guy") - he comes out to the Minnesota House second week of January for awhile when we're gone. P only had 2 hours of sleep the night before we left because he was making a surprise Christmas gift for family. :)

Anyway, we had an additional stall at the Geneva airport as we tried to find a cart for our ample amounts of luggage, and then the line was REALLY slow. Once we got to the counter, there were additional delays...anyway, we ended up rushing to the gate for our departure (with only 10 minutes to spare!) to see...NO ONE at the counter! A very brief moment of panic (had the plane already boarded completely?!) Then we noticed the sign that said the flight departure was moved 20 minutes later. Whew! Then we noticed it moved out 20 more minutes (because of the thick fog everywhere we were told). This gave us some time to show B the beautiful Christmas tree near our gate!

Our flight to Frankfurt was short and sweet. Almost immediately after takeoff, we cleared the fog only to see a bright sunny day looking out over the mountains. It was a little creepy realizing that we'd been living for weeks under this blanket that filled all the valleys, and why the forecasters kept insisting that tomorrow would be a sunny day; sunshine was only a short drive up the Jura...Once in Frankfurt, however, because our flight had been delayed, we had to be more intentional about moving along. It has all become a blur to me now, but P just reminded me of some of the details. We only had 40 minutes, and our plane unloaded us onto the tarmac. All the passengers had to get onto a bus which took a long time getting to a terminal where we boarded a tram. When we got off, we had to go up and down elevators to get to a place where we had to go through security again (!) of course...

We had a few awkward moments where we were waiting for the stroller to come through security but they finally told us they couldn't send it through til we moved all our other bins out of the way. Whew! Re-pack, plop B in the stroller again, then sorta run, roll and rumble to the gate faaar away, which again was empty - this time because everybody else was already on the plane.

We had nice seats and our flight across the Atlantic went well. B even slept a couple hours for his nap and drank milk and played with his piggy toes. Greenland was my favorite part...it was like looking at another planet...jagged mountain peaks with acres of snow and no sign of habitation that I could see!

When we landed in Chicago, our adventures bumped up a notch. First of all, B's stroller wasn't handy for us because the elevator was busted so we had to juggle him on a hip (me) while rolling carry-ons and carrying back-packs and a car seat and shedding extra winter coats. Then, we had to re-claim our luggage and go through customs. Fortunately, this was a breeze! Then some nice lady was there to direct us where to re-check-in our luggage (for the final, domestic leg) because we had been heading the wrong direction with it! They told us our flight to Minneapolis was canceled (!) but they put us on a different flight that was actually leaving earlier. Again we only had 40 minutes again...taking a tram from terminal 5 to terminal 1, going all through the O'Hare obstacle course, picking up speed as we went, praying we were hitting the right buttons on elevators to get us to the correct floors...waiting in line for elevators...then we got to the...security line! Oh no, was it ever long. Take-off-almost-everything kind of slow. Amazingly enough, we were selected for special screening. Oh no! Pat-you-down-and-wand-you kind of thing, but this was a huge blessing because we got shuttled to a different line where we had priority treatment. And no, we weren't detained for any suspicious activity. :) More elevators and miles of speed walkways. We could hear them mis-pronouncing our last name over the speaker as we rushed to our destination. We made it in time and got really nice seats for our last leg to Mpls.

As we pulled out of Chicago, the moon was rising...a HUGE orange moon as the sun set, over-looking the patchwork of Chicago on Christmas Eve. It was beautiful. We were so grateful to God for getting us this far! This gratitude sure came in handy when later, upon arrival in Mpls, we discovered that our luggage hadn't traveled with us. Yup. But, as I write this email, a very happy man, named "Larry" just arrived with all 5 pieces of luggage for us! P had anticipated this (usually happens with United and O'Hare, he says) so we packed our toiletries and extra clothes/diapers.

Another bummer occurred, however, when we went to our destination only to find our hostess missing! We had called from the airport and had hoped/assumed the arrangements we had made by email were still intact, but she hadn't answered her phone nor her door either. Suddenly, the Christmas story took on a whole new meaning. Here we were, on Christmas Eve with "no room in the Inn"! We considered looking for a hotel room but first called P's mom...fortunately, B had finally fallen asleep ...P's mom had loaned us her cell phone too. P's mom kindly let us sleep in her own bed while B snoozed in the pack-n-play.

We just spoke with Tasse by phone...and our lodging is operational now, starting this evening! But it was kinda fun waking up at Ann's house where she has everything so festive and beautiful...she fed us good last night, too. So, a bit of a bumpy landing, but it's Christmas, we're back in the USA, in Minnesota, with family...and God is good.

Merry Christmas,

Love you,

K