I'll Fly Away

I'm having a

Very Unusual Season

in life,

with lots of traveling involved.

Thank the Lord for the flexibility of my family and for homeschooling,

so we can make special things happen!

One of the special gifts God gives is friends,

and last week I had the chance to make what Tate jokingly calls

my "computer-generated friends" (as if they were Wii-creations!)

into real-life friends.

And this time, it worked out to bring Tate along for the ride :D

No, we didn't get to fly on the UW Husky special!

That's our first plane.

I actually "met" Ann's husband Doug first

(long story, but all above-board and Christian-brotherly)

and quickly discovered Ann's family blog.

Through her, I was introduced to Joanna,

and her family blog.

These wonderful mamas have opened their hearts and lives through their blogs.

Ann's family lives and ministers in Arkansas
(her husband is a pastor),

while Joanna's family lives and ministers (mostly) overseas

in the Solomon Islands where they're doing translation work with Wycliffe.

When both families converged near Little Rock,

it was an opportunity too wonderful to miss!

Lenticular cloud caps on (probably) Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams, and Mt. St. Helens.

Probably Mt. Rainier

I'm certainly not the veteran traveler these ladies are,
so I was glad to have a travel buddy :D

Tate was captivated by the light on these clouds as the sun set.
No idea where we were!

Somebody was sure getting some rain!

I booked our flights through Orbitz,
and thought I was allowing plenty of time to get from one flight to the next...
until I got a notice,
"your itinerary has been changed"
and we were left with a 45 minute layover in an unfamiliar airport!
We got off the plane prepared to hustle.

A word to the wise:
When you hear yourself being paged in an airport,
it's probably not a good thing!
Dallas may be lovely, but it was all a blur to me.

We RAN RAN RAN to our gate, and found it locked.
The ticket agent told us the (plane) door was shut and they would re-book us,
but no more flights to Little Rock that night!

What!?!
I nearly cried.
Actually, I begged.

Another ticket agent appeared from nowhere,
unlocked the gate to the jetway and told us,
"Run.  Duck under the security barricade and RUN."

Duck under the security barricade?
Okay.

We made our flight.

So if you're the last one to get on a flight,
and everyone else is seated and listening to the safety talk?

Just act like a celebrity ;D

Love the "sunburst" Tate caught.

The great news is:
we made the flight.

The less fabulous news is:
our luggage didn't.

Thank the Lord for friends who've never met us,
who will meet us at the airport at nearly midnight,
and who will love us in our stinky,
day-old,
slept-in clothes :D