As we landed in LAX we just felt uneasy. The airport was packed. There were music festivals all over the country, many people were on spring break, the weather on the east coast was horrible causing all sorts of delays, and the chance of us getting on our standby flight to Dallas was looking very unlikely. After a few hours of waiting and getting bumped from gate to gate watching flight after flight leave without us, we were just done. We hadn't slept in a week and honestly we still wanted to be in Kauai. We actually considered hoping back on a plane to our little island home.... I mean the seats were open! But we knew we couldn't (at least not yet....), we had things to finish up. As "gypsy" as we might be, we still can't bail on our commitments.
We spent the whole night in the LAX airport and then the last plane left for the evening and we were just stranded there until 5am the next morning. So we wandered around empty terminals... tried to sleep for a little bit and hope to get on the first flight out. As we made it up to the gate we saw on our names on the standby list at #90 and #91. We hit our wall at this point.... I called my friend to ask if she could change our standby flights to Monday, we called off work for another three days and then we rented a car and drove home to Fallbrook. We were ready for a shower, for real food and sleep. And after all of the emotions we had experienced over the past week and losing our friend Sam, all we really wanted to do was see our families and squeeze them tight.
It happened to be an incredible weekend to come home because my baby sis was getting induced on Saturday and Jordan's dad was having his birthday BBQ at the beach on Sunday. We booked it home that Friday afternoon in hopes of beating the LA traffic. We got to surprise Jordan's mom (she had no clue we were coming) and we finally got some real (non-airport) food and took a big long nap!
We woke up feeling refreshed and went to dinner with Ian and Richelle and the babies at the Hooki. We got to meet Jude for the first time and really enjoyed seeing them. Zoe girl has gotten so big. After dinner Richelle and the kids went home and the boys went to do their own thing and I passed out. In the morning on Saturday I got to hang out with Marley and Brudder while the boys went golfing. Marley had just got a new play set with a fake blow dryer, brush, mirror, and butterfly clips. She "did" my hair about 30 different ways and got the brush stuck in my hair at least three times. We played this for at least an hour and then came back to it a few more times through out the day. I can't believe how much she has grown up in the past three months. Her attention span and focus these days is crazy! I was so impressed. We had a lot of fun together. And Brudder-goo is just about walking now... it's sad how fast they are growing!!! After spending most of the day crawling around on my hands knees chasing the kids and playing I jumped in the car and headed to the hospital in Rialto to surprise my little sis. She didn't think I was going to be home for the birth.
I actually got to be in the room with her pretty much the entire labor and delivery. It was a little intense and a little hairy at times but I am so glad that I got to be there with my mom and my sis and of course to see that little miracle, Jace arrive! He was 10lbs and 21 inches long! Everyone was healthy and he was such a cute lil chunker!
After it was all said and done I got to spend a few minutes with them and then I "debriefed" with my mama for a bit. We were in the delivery room for the entire night long with no sleep. After a big coffee I headed back to Fallbrook to take a little nap before going to Scott's birthday BBQ.
We got on a plane to Dallas and then got stuck there for a while again.... Our patience was running out in these airport waiting rooms. We eventually flew from Dallas to St. Louis and were going to rent a car and drive back to Little Rock. But luckily after we fell asleep on the St Louis airport floor for a while we woke up to our names being called for a flight back to Arkansas. It took us a full day of travel but with the help of our amazing friend, Jana, we finally made it back to Little Rock where we picked up White Lightning and drove back to the Ranch in Hot Springs.
 |
| sad..... |
 |
| over it! |
 |
| sleeping in St Louis on the ground.... |
So it was eleven days and we traveled over 10,000 miles. We flew across the country and over the pacific and back. We were able to support our close friends in a horrible situation. We made new friends. We spent time with every one of our closest friends across three different states. I watched my nephew come in to the world. And we were able to celebrate Scott and the amazing father he is.
We feel humbled and blessed that we were able to do this. We are extremely grateful for our mobile and flexible lifestyle that allowed us to drop everything and go. And we are just so so thankful for the amazing people that we have in our lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment