Travel Blessings

For the past two weeks our little family has been traveling. We drove up to Sacramento for Christmas which is about a 6 1/2 hour drive. Very long but Joshua did very well, both ways. The day after we got back from Sacramento we flew to Texas via Salt Lake City. The trip out went okay, all things considered. The way back from Texas (also via Salt Lake City) was a different story. This will take some time to explain so here it goes:

On the way to the airport Joshua was getting cranky so I handed him my phone to play with. He keypad is locked so he can't really hurt it, he just likes to press the buttons and watch the screen light up. As usual, the phone worked and he calmed down. We get to the car rental return place and all is going well. We return the car and take the shuttle to the airport. We we were about to board, Robert says that his phone is dead. That reminded me that I should turn off my phone (since Robert usually asks me if I turn off my phone when we are on the plane, I say no and then have to dig it out and turn it off), so I look to where I keep my phone and it is not there. I then look everywhere in the diaper bag, no phone. I think back...Joshua was playing with my phone. So I look in the bag, where we keep his car seat (we gate check his car seat). At first glance, no phone. Robert looks int he bag, no phone. So I am certain, the phone is in the rental car. Since Robert's phone is dead, he goes to a courtesy phone and calls the car rental place and leaves a message. Oh well, nothing to do, but board, hopefully the car rental place finds the phone.

We board the plane to Salt Lake and wait on the plane for about a half hour. Joshua is doing okay, but is getting tired. Once we were in the air, the pilot says it will take 2 1/2 hours to get to Salt Lake. Robert looks at his watch and realizes we will probably miss our connection. Great. Once we land, we rush off the plane and look at the monitor. We go to the gate, but it is closed. We look at the monitor and see the next flight to Ontario is 4 1/2 hours later (leaves at 7:30PM). Not good. Joshua usually goes to bed at 6:30, which is 7:30 Mountain Time. So we get in line and the counter. Robert figures he will call the customer service and I figure I will talk to the person at the desk (I want them to see I have a very tired baby). When I get to the front of the line, the man tells me the flight to Ontario is booked and so is the later flight to Ontario. He says we can either stay the night there, take a flight to Las Vegas then to LAX, or take a flight to Palm Springs. None of these options are good because he tells me we can't get our luggage (which has food for Joshua and his portable crib) and our car is at Ontario, not LAX or Palm Springs. Plus, Delta will not pay for the shuttle to Ontario from LAX or Palm Springs. After going back and forth, we decide to take the direct flight to Palm Springs which left at 8:45.

Now we have to let my sister, who is watching Butch, know our plans. But wait, Robert's phone is dead and my phone is lost. Just about then, Joshua started to cry because he was hungry, tired, wanting to crawl, something. So I change him and try to feed him, but he doesn't really want to eat. At this time, I was about to break. I asked Robert to pull out the car seat and look thoroughly through the bag. He did and there was my phone! I think God knew I needed a pick-me-up and that did it. For some reason that put me in a better mood and I was ready to tackle the rest of the night.

With higher spirits, I realize that we should try to fly stand-by for the 7:30 flight to Ontario. I knew it was a long shot, because there were five people in front of us, and it was a very small plane. So we went to the gate and waited. During those hours, Joshua hung in there, but we did lots of rocking, singing, etc. As the flight got closer, I told Robert to go and ask what were our chances of making the flight. Robert came back and said there was a slight chance. The people in front of us got seats, and two people hadn't checked in yet. So we waited and prayed. God answered and the two people never showed and we got on the flight to Ontario. We were so happy. Joshua must have felt our relief, because he feel asleep right when the plane took off.
When we landed in Ontario, we were paged overhead. Our bags did not make it to Ontario. We didn't care, we just wanted to be home.

So through the day God taught me a good lesson. Originally I was irritated that we were going to have to wait 4 1/2 hours for the next flight. At the end of the day I was happy that we only had to wait 4 1/2 hours (plus I had my phone), we had no bags (it took a day and half to get our bags, plus they dropped them off at midnight), but we were able to go home and not have to shuttle from LAX or Palm Springs. So I now realize whatever we are going through, it could be worse, much worse. So I thank God for the travel blessing He bestowed upon us.