Difficult Labor

We started our day off with optimism as we left the house at 5:30 am. We thought of all the well wishes and prayers we’ve had for safe and smooth travels. Well we’ve got the safe part…..now to work on the smooth. The Devil has put every possible stumbling block in our way today.

We started out by standing in the wrong line at the Delta Counter and after some time moved to the international line.

We got up to the counter and I asked Troy where our other suitcase was. He had committed the airport crime of leaving one of our bags unattended. Luckily an agent had picked it up and was just getting ready to page us. The power in the terminal went out immediately after we made it through security and oh we thought we were so lucky.

Our flight from Tampa was to leave at 8 am and we promptly loaded on time only to sit on the tarmac for about an hour at which time we were told there were tornadoes in the Atlanta area and we would have to deplane. Once we deplaned, we were immediately told we had clearance to leave and get back on the plane, at which time they closed the door and told us to sit down as the pilot didn’t want to leave until he had more concrete details. This stand up/sit down routine repeated itself and then we finally reboarded.

We were so excited to be airborne at 10 am. Just as we were expecting to land in Atlanta, we were told we would have to maintain a holding pattern for at least an hour, as the weather was still too bad in Atlanta. Well we were in the holding pattern so long we had to land and refuel in Columbia, SC. We returned to our holding pattern near Atlanta and finally were able to land at 2:20 pm. Only 6 hours and 20 minutes for the first leg of our journey….and all without a properly working air conditioner and quite a bit of turbulence.

Now we began in earnest to try and reschedule the other legs of our journey. Troy was working with both the Delta Rep and our Travel Agent. The Delta Rep rerouted us through Los Angeles and then said he had us confirmed on a flight to Taipei. I promised to change Kaylee’s middle name to James in his honor. I reneged on that offer when we later found out that we were not confirmed on our trip to Taipei and were merely on a waiting list.

Our travel agency urged us to change our flight back to San Francisco. I talked with 2 reps at the LA ticket counter who said they couldn’t change our tickets and directed me to the service counter. I had already been in that line of several hundred people earlier. I convinced them to help me and switch us back to San Francisco. (Yes, I showed them Kaylee’s pictures).

Currently we are waiting for our flight to depart at 5:35 pm, but it is delayed as well. We are on standby for the flight to Taipei. Lord only knows where our luggage will end up.

I know this is terribly LONG and I probably lost most of you 5 minutes ago, but I wanted you to appreciate our labor pains. Keep us in your prayers, as this is only the beginning of our adventure. WE WILL BRING HER HOME.