Travel Woes

We had to leave Haiti and return to the US to take care of an emergency job situation. We had a noon flight, so we left the orphanage in plenty of time to check in early for our flight. At the ticket counter we were told our flight would be delayed until 3pm and we would miss our Miami connection. We scheduled a later flight to Jax.

We sat around in the airport eating a sandwich and looking around in the gift shops. The announcements kept coming that the flight would be later and later. Finally, at 6pm we boarded our plane. But wait, the pilot soon announced that there would be yet another delay as a mechanic looked at a mechanical problem.

At 7pm he announced that it was a serious problem with the nose stabilizer that affected steering and the flight would have to be cancelled as the plane could not fly. Wait a minute- didn't a couple of hundred people just get off of this same plane after flying over the ocean!!??

We marched back inside the terminal and formed a long, winding, unhappy line waiting for baggage and booking a new flight. It was after 10pm when we finally left the airport.

We decided against the hotel (even though it could have been the Montana) and instead sent for Nick to come and bring us back home to the orphanage to catch a few hours of sleep in our own bed.

When morning came we headed out to the airport - this time to catch a flight to Ft. Lauderdale. There was a mass of people, passengers from yesterday's cancelled flight added to a new day of flights, translating into a 2 hour wait in line yet again. The disabled plane was still on the runway waiting on parts and mechanics from another country. We finally boarded a plane around noon and landed in FLL at 3pm....then we had to claim baggage and go through customs before getting on a shuttle to Miami for our 6pm return flight to Jax. Amazingly enough, we made that connection!!

On arrival at Jax one of our valet checked bags couldn't be located and we ran down other passengers to see if they had mistakenly picked it up. Eventually, it showed up after the checked luggage was brought out, one of the 6 checked bags didn't make it though. Oh well, maybe they'll find it later (they did- the next day), let's go home.

Sarah got her computer to check in with her friends for the 1st time in a couple of days and... OH, NO... the screen was cracked!!! After hugs and drying tears, we were going back over the previous 2 days and realized how VERY BLESSED we are. God kept us off of a very unsafe plane and allowed us to see His protection. That plane may still be sitting out there on the runway for all I know!