Bon Voyage!

Well we did it. After years of dreaming and learning, and months of planning and anticipation, we are finally in France. This is just the beginning of our journey, but it’s as exciting as ever.

I woke up this morning and looked out Jaelyn’s bedroom window. Mountains! And this is our home for right now. We are indeed blessed.

But…let’s back up a few. I need to share about our journey here.

Our first flight was the long one. I anticipated a smooth trip to London because we were flying at night, and I figured the kids would probably sleep a good portion of it. We had great seats, with plenty of leg room (no one in front of us), and Pax even had his own infant seat that pulled down from the wall. Again, I thought he’d do great because he could sleep in that.

I must have forgotten how much my kids hate the car and being strapped in their carseats. Seriously, after our last trip back from Texas my kids would begin whining and melting down after just 10 minutes in the van. Poor things were traumatized!

Pax ended up falling asleep about 2 hours into the flight. But continued to wake up constantly. Probably mostly due to the fact that he is a tummy sleeper (with his little tush up in the air), and was unable to turn around in his seat.

Jaelyn was wide awake and didn’t want anything to do with sleep, even after they finally turned off all the lights on the plane- about 4 hours into the flight. Eventually she did fall asleep, and slept until we landed.

Neither Phil or I got any sleep. So…that’s always a great start to a new day.

We arrived in London and after waiting 30 minutes for our stroller, we were informed that it had gone to our next flight. Great…two kids, 3 carry-ons, running late to the next flight and NO stroller.

We had to go through security again and this time it didn’t go well at all. They insisted on taking EVERYTHING out of the diaper bag and small cooler I had for the kids’ drinks. It was 8:45 a.m. and the gate to our next flight closed at 9:00 a.m.

I asked the man attending to our things how far the gate was, and he informed me that he’d tried to hurry so I didn’t miss the flight. Well hurry he did NOT! At 8:50 I sent Phil and Pax to the gate so they could try to get them to wait for us.

I grew increasingly impatient with the man that insisted on taking his sweet time, knowing that I had minutes to get to my flight….which happened to be on the other side of the airport.

By 9:05 he was finally done. He took the small ice pack I had to keep their milk/drinks cold, saying that it was a liquid and I wasn’t allowed to have it on the plane. Even though I had clearly had it on the last plane.

I wondered out loud how I was supposed to keep the kids’ milk cold, but was more frustrated by the fact that he had made me late to my next flight.

I grabbed the bags, picked up Jaelyn and tried to get to the other side of the airport as fast as I could. It was then that my body decided to have an emotional breakdown. I couldn’t stop the tears. I must have looked so ridiculous! A pregnant lady carrying several bags, a toddler, half-running through the airport and now sobbing! What a sight!

I made it to our gate and found Phil and Pax waiting by the desk. The lady had graciously waited for us!

We boarded our flight to Switzerland with everyone gawking at us. But we made it! So I didn’t really care.

And when I sat down I couldn’t keep the tears from coming. I had bottled up all of the emotions of saying goodbye and actually leaving, waiting to have a quiet moment to cry by myself. But now, I was sobbing on an airplane packed with complete strangers…and my family sitting right next to me.

The flight to Switzerland was just over an hour. Pax, however was completely overtired and wouldn’t wait an hour to have his meltdown. I apologized profusely to the lady seating in front of us- the seat that he kicked in frustration and anger through the whole flight He FINALLY fell asleep as we were landing. And he slept hard! I had to carry him through the airport to baggage claim (because we still didn’t have our stroller). He didn’t wake up at all!

We finally found our stroller, just hanging out several feet from the baggage area. I was so thankful to finally be able to strap the kids in and not worry about having to carry them around.

We managed to get 9 of our 10 suitcases. But then there was the task of getting 2 carts to push them on and figuring out how to get the bag that was missing. In another country. Where we don’t speak the language. And we don’t have their money.

That took us about an hour to accomplish. Which was unfortunate because the taxi bus to pick us up arrived at 12 p.m. By the time we were heading out of the airport, it was just after 1 p.m. I was certain we were going to be stranded in Geneva- still 2 hours from our final resting place.

But by the grace of God, our driver was STILL there! He was a sight for sore eyes. And once again, the tears came unsuspectingly. And once again, I’m certain I looked ridiculous. This time pushing a cart full of suitcases AND pushing a double stroller. How I managed that, I’m still not sure.

With both kids fast asleep, we loaded up into the van (which I guess is a taxi bus!) and headed to the school. It was a beautiful drive! And I wish I could have stayed awake to see it!

The kids and I slept nearly the whole way there! And we arrived at the school in Albertville around 3 p.m. Tuesday afternoon.

I wish I had some pictures to show of our trip, but…I unfortunately forgot to put a memory card in the camera. Go figure!

We are so blessed to be here. And we are even more blessed by the place that we live in. It's quite amazing!

More on our home in a later post  though (with pictures this time!!).