Our flight from Little Rock to Chicago

First of all, thank you to everyone who came out to say goodbye to all of us at the airport (and to those who prayed for us at home, sent messages on facebook, and emails of encouragement!). It was a sweet time of small talk, pictures, prayers and tears! A special THANK YOU to Rodney Davidson who paid for the extra piece of luggage that snuck in to our pile! We were about to leave our children’s box of Playmobil when Rodney jumped in and paid the fee to allow us to take it with us!! Our children thank you, too, Rodney!!

When we got to the airport at 10:40, the lady checking in our luggage said our plane was going to be about 2 hours delayed. Scott had JUST gotten a text message saying the plane was on time and all the departure boards said the same thing. So we hung out with friends and family until 12:15 or so...then our friends lovingly left us to have some family time. We spent 45 minutes or so with Katelyn, Josh, my mom and Lydia (my dad had a meeting he couldn’t get out of, but had been at the airport for a while before saying goodbye).

Around 1:00 the departure boards still said our flight was leaving at 1:50, so we said our very tearful goodbyes to our family (I still tear up as I’m typing this) and went through security. That was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Leaving 2 of my children.....

First thing after security.....and putting our shoes back on....and our laptop bags back together....and encouraging the children to cry quietly instead of wailing.....we walked down to Burger King to eat. Everyone was super-hungry!!! That was a good distraction to our sadness. It gave us time to sit and just talk about how everyone was feeling.

By then it was 1:45 and we still weren’t hearing announcements about our plane departing, so Scott went up to the desk to ask. Guess what? Our flight WAS delayed 2 hours (leaving at 4)....but they were hoping to leave before then. The storm that had hit Arkansas had headed up to Chicago and the delays were from their end.

So we let the kids get some toys out of their backpacks and they had a great time playing in the waiting area. I let my mom know because they were waiting outside to watch our plane take off.

Around 3:45 they called us to board. I’m going to stop here and switch to a different part of our story. Many of you know that Scott has suffered from EXTREME claustrophobia. Thoughts about the plane ride (well, not actually the ride....just the door closing on the plane) have kept him awake for MONTHS. We have prayed and prayed for healing for him. He had been actively praying that he would be able to go through all the flights without taking any medication. He wanted GOD to get the glory....not the pills. (Thank you to everyone who was praying for him!!)

So we’re walking down the walkway to the airplane (an American Eagle, btw) and Scott is muttering “Get behind me, Satan.” Then he says, “I don’t think I can do this.” I said, “Yes, you can. You have to” Then I started saying out loud as we’re walking toward the plane, “Jesus, you will have the victory. Satan, you are defeated. Satan, in the name of Jesus, leave now. You have no power here.” And Scott is behind me saying the same kinds of things. I’m sure the flight attendants thought we were loco as we got closer and closer to the plane.

But Scott got on!! He was ok!! We got all the kids settled, reminded them again of what takeoff was like. We sat there about 10 minutes. Then the pilot came on the loudspeaker and said they were having another delay...that we would leave in 45 minutes. We were welcome to get off the plane, but they would prefer us to stay on. Well, needless to say, our whole family got off the plane!!

We sat in the waiting area for 40 more minutes and then got to do the whole boarding thing again! Same scenario....rebuking Satan and giving Jesus the victory! This time we got on the plane and actually took off! Praise the Lord!! Yes, it was 4:45 instead of 1:50....but we were on our way!!

During the 2 hour flight to Chicago Scott watched a movie on his ipod. Melissa, Benji, and Laura played ds. Garrett colored and Nate and Annie played with Toy Story toys we bought them as a surprise for the plane. Me? I alternated between crying, praying, checking on everyone to make sure they were ok, talking to Scott a little bit, and watching the kids use their imaginations playing with their toys.

We landed at Chicago around 6:45 and our next flight left around 9:30. My mom had given us a Chilis gift card so we could eat at the airport. So we stopped there and ordered while Scott went to see what was going on with our next flight. The Chilis was SO busy!!! I was getting nervous because it was taking so long...but the food got there and everyone ate very quickly (yum, it was good!!). Then it was off to find our next flight.

We were in Terminal 3 at O’Hare and we had to get to Terminal 5....so we got to ride on the train. That was fun! The kids loved it! We got to Terminal 5 and got ready to go through security AGAIN! That was my least favorite part of this whole journey! And this security checkpoint was my least favorite one....and the most stressful part of the whole trip.

Scott was having a bit of a panic attack so he went off to pray and wanted to go through security alone. So....I had all the kids AND all the carry-ons to get through security. I learned something that day....O’Hare is NOT like Little Rock airport. At O’Hare everyone is kind of stressed, rushing you along, and there are a TON of people waiting behind you, yuck!! In Little Rock there was 2 people behind us, the security people chatted with us as we put our bags through.....NOT at O’Hare. Oh my word, I had a stress headache when that ordeal was done.

The children and I sat and waited for Scott and just de-stressed. We talked about what had just happened and determined to put it behind us...rather than continuing to be snappy with each other. I think, too, that everyone’s nerves were on edge because we were about to board our plane to Istanbul....an 11 hour flight. Everyone was kind of nervous.

Scott came through security just fine and we walked the short distance to our gate. As we were getting our boarding passes out for our flight (the American Airlines lady in Little Rock had printed all our boarding passes for all flights), we realized that she had NOT given us boarding passes for the boys for our flight from Istanbul to Entebbe. OH NO!! The attendant at the gate in Chicago said that what we had printed out from our computer would be enough....so I TRIED not to worry.

Down the walkway we went....this time to our longest flight....you can probably imagine how we were ALL rebuking Satan and giving Jesus the victory on Scott’s behalf.

So here we are on the plane to Istanbul....details about that tomorrow! We’re one step closer to figuring out about posting pictures. Hopefully we’ll do that soon!