I Wish...

My biggest wish in life at the moment is that I will NEVER have to have a repeat of the trip I just had with the kids. As I might have blogged before, the kids and I took advantage of my husband being at school to make a return trip home. I wanted to come see family, but for me it was also a way to show myself that I could make the over 5000 mile trip on my own.

I love to be able to travel. With my husband's schedule I usually take what I call "mini vacations" from the house. There are always times where he is gone for a week here, two weeks there, an occasional month, etc. When we were in the US, I'd just hop in the car and go. I'd drive anywhere and everywhere with the kids and we'd have a great time. Since we have moved, I now have to fly everywhere to visit family and friends.

I have flown with the kids alone, but never for more than a couple of hours at a time. We made the trip over, but my husband was with me. For awhile now I have feared the flight alone with my kids to come over. I hated feeling like that because I want to know that I can do it if I need to. I need to know that push come to shove I feel confident and comfortable taking the kids on the plane and taking care of things. That first trip just happened.

It was a horrible flight. Genevieve was at least very good for me. She was a little antsy at times, but who isn't on a flight that long. Samuel on the other hand cried, fussed, and pretty much anything for the whole 10 hour flight. I felt so bad for everyone around. I kept telling anyone who looked over that I was very sorry. Most people were understanding. I did hear one guy on a cell talking after the flight about how bad it was because some stupid kid was crying all the time. The people who were older or had kids kept telling me to hang in there. Most even shared their horror stories of their bad flights with their own kids. I couldn't do anything to calm him down. I tried anything I could think of. A couple of other people tried a few things too, and those didn't seem to do anything either. I have no idea what was wrong. The only thing I can think of is that he was way too tired. We had been up so early that day, and I think he was so tired he couldn't sleep. We were both in tears many times on the flight.

Our layover was very quick. When I booked the flight, I thought it was 2 hours. The day before I left I checked the stuff online only to realize that it was only 1 1/2 hours. We got through passport control, baggage claim, customs, baggage recheck, security, sky train, and to the gate just in time to check in. We were able to use the bathroom real quick and then get on the plane. Everything went fine with it, but I don't know if I want to only do 1 1/2 hours again. It'd probably be okay with my husband there to help out.

We've been here a few days, and we seem to be adjusting to the time change and everything. I am still close enough to that flight that I'm not looking forward to the flight home at all. I just need to have faith that not all flights are like my last. I guess it was a good test to know that even if things go really bad on the flight, I can still make it alone if I need to. I can't say I'd do this more than a time or two a year though.