Our Journey to Spain

We had so many people praying for us during this journey, and it was so obvious to us as we traveled!  Thank you to all of you who were praying for us.  Here are some snippets along the way...
 

My dad got their church van to take us all to the airport in D.C.  We flew British Airways out of Dulles because we were able to get 3 bags each as part of our tickets.  So... the kids got to bring all their toys from Christmas, and I got to bring all my spices from home!!!... and a few more things. :) hehe... Normally, I try to pack light and go as simple as possible.  This trip was definitely an exception!  I brought everything and anything we wanted back to Spain (extra shoes for Wes, who can't often find his size in Spain, extra pants for the boys, tons of gluten free flour for Carolina... etc., etc.) :)  We still had ONE more bag we could have brought!  Ha!

Happy faces when as we begin... will they still be that way when we arrive???

My mom came with us!  It's been the biggest blessing.  We are so thankful for her, and it was just so nice to know that we didn't have to say goodbye to her right away.  It made a huge difference for the kids.

We left at 2pm for our 3 hour drive to D.C.  It didn't take long for the kids to zonk out. :)

Arriving at the airport!

Saying goodbye to Papa was definitely hard.  Nathan really struggled with this goodbye.

All those bags!... and one cute girlie :)

Jonathan saying one last goodbye to Nana and Granddaddy from American soil

The beginning of many "waits" along the way....

When we finally  boarded the plane, the kids were ecstatic to find TV screens for every seat, with movies and video games for each person!  It really was incredible.  This pic was taken before we even started taxiing. haha... even Wes was excited about those movies! :)

After half a movie, Carolina was ready for bed.  This doggy was given to Carolina by her "Aunt" Roxie and Carolina decided to name him Ben... after Roxie's son Ben Cash, who has become one of her favorite people.  She isn't going anywhere without 'Ben' these days.

We had a great flight from Washington D.C. to London.  The kids did great.  They each slept a couple hours... Carolina and Jonathan slept almost the whole night.  They are such heavy sleepers!  Weston and Nathan slept less, but they were happy with their movies and games.

Once we reached London, things got a little crazy.  We actually usually try to avoid Heathrow because it's just not so very organized for wheel chair transportation... not to mention it's just huge!!!  But, because of the 3 bags each, we decided to do London one more time.  It went just as we expected... it was nuts.

Obviously, we were all pretty tired (except Jonathan and Carolina, of course!), so that just kinda made it all worse.  You know how that goes.  We got off the plane and had to wait for the wheel-chair, which is a normal thing; but then they told us that we might have to split up... that the kids and I would have to walk on our own through the airport and that Wes and Nathan would be escorted through in a cart.  Now, we have been all over Europe and also done those 2 other overseas flights, and we have NEVER been split up before.  I was not at all happy about that idea.  Airports are really not the kind of places you want to get separated, you know? ... especially when you have 4 kids!

I do have to admit that we have gotten very spoiled by Nathan needing a wheel chair. :)  I know that sounds strange, but we always get personally escorted through the airport, which is nice... but the best part is that we skip to the front of all security lines.  Anyone who has traveled with kids knows what a HUGE thing that is!!! :)  We have even skipped to the front of immigration lines... the wheel-chair gets us right through! :)

Anyway, I argued a little bit with the flight-attendant, telling her that that has never happened before, and that I wasn't comfortable splitting up my family.  They were nice, and encouraged us to ask about staying together.  It turned out that we got escorted by a guy through the airport, we just went on foot instead of in a cart.  That was totally fine by us... as long as we could stay together... at least we thought.

The thing we didn't know was this guy was a little clueless.  We went from one terminal all the way across (walking about 15 minutes) to another terminal, went through security, and then he decided to check for our gate.  He came back and apologized and said we had to go BACK to the terminal we just came from... so 15 minutes BACK.  He deposits us at a cafe, so we could get lunch and then shows us the gate.  He goes on to explain that "if" our gate gets changed, and we have to go BACK over to the other terminal, that we would have to go down some stairs and walk under the tarmac  (another15 minutes) to the other terminal.  If we went back the way we came, we would have to go throughs security again.

He had mentioned stairs, so I asked him how we would get Nathan down those stairs.  He thought for a minute and said that we would have to ask an attendant to help us.  What in the world????  It was like the wheel-chair was an after-thought instead of his main job!  And to be honest (again, I know that this is sounding very spoiled...) they usually come back when it's time to board the plane and actually escort Nathan onto the plane... they don't typically leave us completely on our own with a wheel-chair.  So, anyway, I thought it sounded a bit funny, but hoped it was not important.

After having lunch and sitting for a little bit, we kept waiting for the board to show our flight at this particular gate.  You guessed it... it never came up.  So, an hour before the flight, Wes decides to go and check the big board that listed ALL flights.  He was gone SO long, it really started to make me nervous.  We are usually boarded (b/c of Nathan's wheel-chair) an hour before the flight takes off and we were now at 1/2 an hour before.  So Mom and I packed up all the kids, thinking we needed to do something or we were going to miss our flights!  (I guess I should add in here that the reason we were so adamant about not missing the flight... other than just the normal inconvenience... was that we could have lost our visas if we were out of the country more than 6 months to the day.  We also couldn't have left earlier because we had to be in the US for 6 months exactly in order to keep our social security!... So, we were obviously on a very tight schedule and you can see why missing a flight was NOT an option!) Just was we had the kids ready to go, Wes jogged up and told us the guy left us at the wrong gate, and that we had to go back to the original terminal.  So much for hoping. :) I should have known.

Wes was gone so long because he knew we had to find an attendant to help us get to the other terminal or we'd have to go through security again, and we'd miss the flight!  He finally found someone, and he and Wes had to carry the wheel-chair down two flights of steps! This guy pointed us in the right direction and left us. So we walked for about 10-15 minutes in these underground tunnels under the tarmac to get to the other terminal.  It was a bit strange... no one else was down there and there was a ton of construction going on everywhere.  BUT... the signs said we were heading in the right direction.  So we kept on....

We finally made it BACK (for the 3rd time!) to this terminal and panted up to the gate.  Thankfully (definitely a God-thing!), the flight was a little delayed and we made it in time to board "early" with the others who had small children.  They were all lined up in front of us, so when it came time to go, all those with strollers got on the one elevator before us.  Wes and the other kids went on the escalator and I was told to wait with Nathan and the wheel chair for the elevator to come back.  We waited for them to go and then pushed the button again.  A few minutes later, it still hadn't come back!... so we pushed the button again... and again... and again.  Now they were boarding all the other passengers and I was so worried about Nathan.  He gets trampled by people when he has to board like this.  Most people are in a hurry and don't see little ones... especially ones that are slower like Nathan.  He gets pushed aside and knocked over.  I finally went back over to where they were taking boarding passes and asked about the elevator.  It turned out we needed a special key to call the elevator.  Why didn't someone think of that when the attendant told us to take the next elevator?????

Whew... so we finally made it to the entrance of the plane and I realized that all the boys had left their back-packs (which were all extremely heavy with toys!) on the bottom rack of the wheel chair.   I was already carrying my own carry-on, my purse, and Carolina's back-pack.  So, once Nathan got out of the wheel-chair,  I had to carry 4 back-packs, a duffle bag and a purse... and help Nathan down the isle!  I was huffing and puffing by the time we got to our seats!!!!! Can you picture it!?!?! :)  But, praise the Lord we made it.  I think I was still getting settled as they started taxiing down the run-way, but we were on the plane to Madrid!  This is why I avoid Heathrow like the plague!! :) hehe...

All in all, things could have been so much worse! :) Even as I sat down, I knew that.  It was like everything just kind of slipped away... we were only 2 and half hours from landing on Spanish soil!  I hardly slept on the flight from US to London... and then I was pretty stressed with that transition to this plane, so I was whipped once I sat down for this 2 and a half hour flight to Madrid.  Mom took Carolina to sit with her, and Wes had Nathan (who gets pretty nervous when flying.)  The two other boys played with their Kindles, and I decided to SLEEP!! :) I think I was out almost immediately. The Lord knew I needed it.  It was such a good nap. :)  I woke up feeling quite rested and ready to land in Madrid!... thanks to all of you who prayed us through that whole ordeal! :)  Even as it was all happening, I just kept thinking... this is just normal, we would have no stories at all if everything went perfectly according to plan, right? haha...

So, we finally landed in Madrid... and the two little ones were pretty excited.

We were delayed (which is normal) getting off the plane as we waited for a wheel-chair for Nathan, so by the time we got to baggage claim, only our bags were left.  It was quite a comical picture, since we had so many!!!

Yes, every bag on the belt was ours!

Nathan definitely got the best end of this deal.  Poor thing.  He was so tired after all of that... he fell asleep in that wheel-chair and didn't wake up until we got to the van!!!

Some of our colleagues from Madrid met us at the airport and brought our new huge van!... we actually didn't know until this point that we were going to be able to get it!  So that was a HUGE blessing! :)  From here, we went and checked into our hotel, walked to a near-by mall for dinner, and then sacked out for the night.  Everyone slept all through the night... and we had to wake everyone up at 10am the next morning so we could get on the road to Valencia!

Thank you for following us on this journey... and for all of your love and prayers!  We will keep you posted on more details of our arrival very soon!  We are excited about what God is going to do!

... and so our journey in Valencia begins...