Hello everyone! I know there are a certain number of you that are saying to theirselves "It's about time you posted a new blog!" :D I know I know.... No excuses!! Well here it is for you all!
Right now were are in michigan!!! It is ssssooo nice to be home. I can't belive it's been over a year since we've seen everyone. That's just crazy. We decided to try out Space A to get here. For those of you who don't know what that is, it means Space Available. Military members and their families can use it. You have to go to an airforce base (sometime other branches) and get on the list. I tried to plan ahead and put us on the list a month before we were leaving. I figured that way we would be at least towards the top of the list when we finally did fly out! Well it paid off, because when we got to Ramstein Air Force base we were the first civilians on the list. EVERY TIME!!! I say every time because it took us two days to get out of there. That's not bad, and also is normal.
Since we didn't have our soilder with us, and that he's deployed for 15 months, we were category III. That means if there is anyone in cat I or II they get the seats before us. The sometimes frustrating part was when they posted the list right before they called roll call, we would be at the top, but what you don't see are the soldiers that came in and signed up last minute that have priority over you. Now, I didn't get mad about that though. The reason is because most of the soldiers are coming home from either a deployment, or on R&R, or have just been away for a few months. I know if I was their family waiting back home for them, I would want my soldier to have priority over a family that was just going home for leisure.
Ok, I'll back up a little bit. My good friend Aimee was generous enough to drive me the 3 hours to ramstein. We left after church on sunday, March 1st. That meant that we were going to be getting in late that night. Lucky for my Aimee is part of a hospitality house ministry and she knew some friends that had one in Ramstein. They were super kind and allowed us to stay the night at their house. We rolled in about 10pm. We of course stayed up a little trying to unwind and then decided to hit the hay since we had to wake up early. The thing with space A is that there may be 6 flights going to the east coast and an hour later there are only 2. That's kind of what happened. When we got to the base the next morning (the 2nd) there were only two flights going out. I missed the first one by a long shot, so we had to wait around for a couple of hours. The airport had this great family room provided by the USO. Those people are AWESOME! We were able to 'rent' a movie (my ID card as hostage) for the kids and relax in the family room. When the second flight came up, we went downstairs to check the roll call and I missed it just on paper. They didn't have that many seats. So by about 10:30am our day was over. That was the last flight going stateside that day! So we decided to head to the first American restraunt I had had in over a year, Chili's!!
We ate lunch and then went home for a nap. Aimee and the kids were already in the room trying to sleep when I got done with the shower. Sean wasn't cooperating very well so Aimee decided to take him Antique shopping with him! It was so nice of her to do that and let me sleep. She's awesome! Kayla and I slept for a while actually. When I woke up our hosts were super nice and got us something to eat. I called Aimee and told her we were awake and she started home. Apparently while she was driving around, sean fell asleep, so she just kept driving around so he could get a good nap in. Isn't that so nice?!
We didn't want to intrude on the families birthday party for their daughter so Aimee took us to this restraunt she knew of in the area. Aimee and her husband Brian were prior military and stationed in the area. We went to a castle there and then to this awesome restraunt. I can't even remember the name of it, but MAN their steak was good! And I was lucky to have the hookup with Aimee there! They remembered her and gave us a ton of extra food at no cost! Super cool!!
Well, then next morning we woke up bright and early, got the kids in the freezing car half asleep, and started it all over again. The first flight was suppose to go out at like 0630, but when we got there it was delayed an hour. Then another hour. That was pretty much the start of my day!!
I was trying to get to the east coast. ANYWHERE on the east coast. My parents were going to pick me up, so they decided to leave sunday and drive to pennsylvania. That was about 5 hours from Mcguire and Baltimore both. It was another 11 hours to Charleston. We didn't really want to go to charleston for obvious reasons. It was SO far away. But we were all on agreement that I would just get to the states and we would deal with whatever needed to be done. With that said, there were two flights with their roll calls 15 minutes apart. Both flights had about 25 confirmed seats on them. The first flight was a C17 (military cargo plane) to Charleston. The second was a civilian (the only civilian flight out of there) to Baltimore. Being on the top of the list with 25 available seats I was almost positive I would get the charleston flight. The thing was, I didn't want my parents to have to drive another 11 hours. They had already been on the road waiting at a hotel for 2 days. BUT, if I gave up my charleston seat, I wasn't promised a balitmore seat. And that ended up being the last flight to the states that day. SO, I took the charleston flight. I just needed to get stateside. Aimee called Brain, who called my parents (at 0100) woke them up and told them where we were going. They got dressed and started on their 11 more hours of driving. Bless their hearts. As for Aimee, she had to drive back home and wanted to get there ASAP since brian was sick. I understood and since I had my tickets, I felt comfortable with her leaving.
So there I was, with my two kids, a small carryon suit case, two backpacks, a diaper bag, a car seat and a double stroller. Did I mention that security was on the second floor and the elevator was broken? Thankfully Aimee helped me get upstairs before she left and I figured I'd just stay there until we boarded. Not too long after that they called our flight to start checking in. It was a little tricky getting all of us and our stuff through security, but we managed and made it to our terminal. The kids were getting a little restless, but for what they had been through those last couple of days, they did AWESOME!!
We didn't have to wait long and they started getting us to our bus that was going to take us to our plane. I don't know if you caught this, but we managed to get on a C17. You know, one of those huge military cargo planes? I was actually looking forward to it, because I had heard that if there wasn't much cargo then the kids could just run around once we got to alltitude. I was pretty excited about that idea!
We got all the way to our plane and sean said "I can't belive we're going to fly on that. That's so awesome!". It was too cute. Then our driver informed us that we weren't suppose to take off for another 2 hours.......... so we all had to go back to waiting in the mail area. That meant another trip through security. Once we got back to that area, I realized that I was now on the first floor and I needed to be on the second. Lucky for me, God is always looking out for me. Most of the people on the flight with us were soldiers. Coming home from being gone for about 4 months. Now that might not seem long to those of us who have done or are doing 15 month deployments, but any time away from loved ones is hard enough. I was very greatful to have them on the flight with us. They took good care of us. Once I got the kids out of the stroller, two guys just grabbed my whole stroller, bags and all, and carried it up the stairs! After the two hours, they called us again and off we were, going through security. I was trying to get all of my stuff and a soldier just grabbed my suitcase from me and said "I'll get this". That was so helpful!
We got through security and to our terminal and we weren't even there literally 5 minutes and they told us we were delayed another 2 hours. Once we got upstairs again we found out it was another hour on top of that. So the kids and I decide to use th family room again and I asked one soldier if they called us and I didn't hear if he would make sure they didn't leave with out me. He of course said yes. Before going to the family room, I called my parents to let them know what was going on and I also emailed chris to keep him in the loop. And of course I couldn't leave our my friends in germany, since I knew they were all wondering what was going on with me as well. Once all the phone calls were over, we went to chill in the family room.
After the 3 hours they called us again and off we were. By this time the one soldier and I had a system going for how we got me and the kids and all of our stuff where we needed to go. I didn't even have to ask anymore, he just grabbed the suitcase and off we were! Sometimes I would just catch back up to him at the terminal!! :) We actually got on the bus this time. We were all waiting anxiously to see if we would get OFF the bus.... and we did! WOOHOOO!!! We're actually going!
Once we got on the plane they handed out ear plugs (it's pretty loud) and I got the kids situated in their seats. Kayla was in the car seat on one side of me and sean was on the other side of me. I don't think we had even took off yet and kayla was knocked out! Poor kids were pooped! I don't remember the sequence of events on the plane too much. There came a time where I was so tired that I don't really remember. I do remember that the kids and I played with their coloring books for a little while, then we had all fallen asleep for a while. Then kayla woke up and sean slept in the car seat and I played with her. Also, a soldier had given us their sleeping back in case we wanted to lay down. OOHH!! I almost forgot to tell you something I thought was hilarious!! Ok, so there were maybe 10 of us on the flight that were civilian. Everyone else was Airforce or Army. You could totally tell these guys had done this before. As SOON as we hit altitude and they said we could take off our seat belts, our flew the sleeping bags and little mattresses and man, did they find every nook and cranny to fit into. Now remind you, this plane was FULL of cargo, but these guys founds ways to sleep anyway! It was just so funny to me to see how fast they layed down! :) After a while of trying to stay awake, I finally gave in and layed down. Sean was getting kind of cranky, but I think it was because he was so tired and couldn't find a comfy spot. I had already layed down with sissy in the sleeping bag and were trying to sleep. After alittle bit of trying to get sean to calm down, I figured out that he was probably cold. I switched spots with him and let him sleep with kayla in the bag. Of course as soon as he finally fell asleep. We started landing in Gander Canada. We had to refuel. So I had to wake the kids up and get them in their seats.
We stayed in gander for about an hour and then we just had another 4 hours to Charleston. Man was it awesome when we finally landed. It was such a relief to know that we were stateside and that my parents were waiting for us!!! the kids were super excited too! Once again, the guys helped me get all my stuff off the plane and onto ground. I couldn't thank them enough. I wish I could have done more. But I have decided that since God always sends someone my way when I'm traveling alone, I'm going to be prepared this time. I plan I having a huge ziploc baggie full of cookies for anyone who helps me. Homemade of course. I think that'll be kinda nice!!
My parents drove us back to the hotel where they suprised me with my grandma!!! Bless her heart, she had taken this long trip with them. I wonder if she would have came if they knew they would be traveling all the way to south carolina!! LOL :) Either way, I was very glad to see her! We all stayed up way later than we should have, but finally went to bed around 1am. The next morning we woke up with a half an hour before breakfast closed and we didn't want to miss that, since it was a hot breakfast!! :)
We all ate and then started on our way home. Well, we took a little pit stop at the ocean to go 'treasure hunting'. Since we only live by lakes, we couldn't pass up a look at the beautiful ocean!!! It took us two days to get home, but we finally made it. I was and am so thankful that my parents were so willing to just come and get me from anywhere. I wish it wouldn't have had to be so far away, but that's what God wanted and who's argueing with the Big Man? Not me! :)
Man!!! That was a long one!! Sorry about that! I will write more about Chris coming home at another time! Two reasons really.... 1) to keep you in suspence! And 2) It's midnight and my fingers are cramping!! :)
I hope you all enjoyed our little trip here! I will talk to you all soon!
Love Rachel, Chris, Sean and Kayla!
These pictures are of the kids digging for treasure and Kayla chasing the seagulls! Papa would drop a penny in the sand near where Sean was digging so he would find it. He thought that was the coolest thing ever!!
