Flying Home

May 18, 2013: The night we left Saudi our trip started the same way it normally did when we'd fly cross country, except this time, we weren't flying Qatar and we weren't flying directly to Houston.  This meant we didn't have to leave our house at 2am, but instead 10pm.  After the hour and a half drive to the airport, and myself crying uncontrollably the entire drive, we arrived and got checked in.  The boys were tired and pretty much slept, but Brooklyn was interested in seeing what was going on.  This really helped make things easy for Brooks and I especially since I was so emotional from just telling all of our friends goodbye.  We hung out in the Lounge since we were flying Business Class (one of the incentives when moving is the company provides you with a Business Class ticket your first flight over to Saudi and your last flight home-- this was actually something we were so looking forward to).  

   

We ended up flying KLM and our first flight was EASY.  We all slept great for the 6 hour flight to Amsterdam and woke up just before landing.  Business class seats are AWESOME!! We knew we had a layover so we went looking for coffee, breakfast, and the kids playground to let them burn some energy before boarding our next flight.  Brooks and I were still tired and I was still emotional, but we managed to play with the kids and have some fun.  I felt like I was in a daze the whole time.  All I kept thinking was, "was our time in Saudi really over?"  At some point, I remember asking Brooks about what time it was and when were we suppose to board and I just went along with the info he gave me.  After a while we thought it was time to get our bags and head to our gate.  We figured we'd be early and they wouldn't be boarding yet, but at least we'd be near the gate.  When we arrived at the gate we noticed people were boarding.  We were confused, but got in line anyways.  Eventually, we noticed one of the monitors said the flight was going to San Francisco, NOT Atlanta.  We were confused.  We got to the ticket agent and handed them our tickets only to be informed we had missed our flight 45 minutes ago.  We were shocked and stunned and upset and frustrated and had every type of emotion you could think of.  Apparently, when we arrived in Amsterdam we forgot there was a time change and just went off our own watches and ended up missing our flight.  The playground was so far from the gate that we never had a chance of hearing any of the pages they sent for our family over the intercoms.   So, we were rushed to a transfer desk and were put on the next flight to Atlanta, Georgia, which just so happened to be an hour and 15 minutes later.  Thank you Jesus.  We were so grateful that if we had to miss our flight, there was still an international flight for us to make that day!  

The flight to Atlanta was alright.  I say that because there were only enough business seats for 3 of us and 2 seats in economy comfort (they are in coach, but have extra leg room).  Nothing like finally getting your business class gift tickets from the company and not getting to use them!  BIG BUMMER!  Brooks made the decision that Brooklyn, myself, and Gavin would take the business class seats and he and Miles would hang out in coach.  I think Brooks' only saving grace was that Miles had his car seat during the flight, which kept Miles somewhat contained.  The flight attendants all knew our situation and allowed Brooks and Miles to hang out in Business class with us a few times, get snacks from our cabin, and just relax.  At some point, Brooklyn went to the back with Brooks and I kept Miles. All the kids did great flying and were entertained for the most part.  It wasn't our normal 14 hour flight, instead just 9 hours so it felt like a piece of cake!  We eventually landed in Atlanta, only to find out that the President had just flown into the airport, causing the entire airport to shut down, delaying flights for most of the day along with bad weather delays.  We weren't going to miss our Atlanta to Little Rock flight since we already had a long layover scheduled, YAY!  Who am I kidding?  Our flight kept getting delayed and delayed and delayed until I was starting to look for local hotels thinking we weren't going to get to fly out until the morning... we eventually left Atlanta around 9pm after we all took naps laid out on the airport chairs.  That flight was nothing- only about an hour and half (I think) and the kids were all sleeping- Thank you Jesus!  The ordeal in Atlanta was discouraging, but all I could think was we now live in the USA!  If this is what we have to go through to be here now, so be it!  

We finally arrived in Little Rock and were greeted by Uncle Bran, who was getting married in 3 days!!