We're here!

First I have to say. . . .Happy Birthday to Noleigh! We were excited we go to spend her birthday with Nana. Unfortunately, a great part of the day was spent driving to Nana's house, but we still had time for birthday cake and presents. She was happy we didn't forget and that she got to be with both Nana and Grandma Ann. Nana has a surprise for her, but it won't be for a few more weeks. . . I wonder what it is.

The last few days have been very interesting. It started Monday morning, as we were headed to Dover DE, where we going to catch our flight. We took the train from Newport News to Wilmington DE. That was a very nice ride actually. It was cool to see the States from a train window. It was nice to not have to drive, to be able to use the restroom without stopping, and to get up and walk around. If you have time, I recommend this route, however if you are in a hurry, do not take the train. It took us until 3:30 to get to Wilmington (about 6 hours 20 min). From Wilmington we took the 301 bus to Dover. It was a straight shot, though it took 1 hr 45 minutes. The bus ride was okay though, it got us where we needed to be and was only $4. You can't really complain about that. The bus dropped us of at Water St. Transfer Station in Dover, but we missed the last bus to the Dover Air Force Base, so we called a cab. It was nice because as we were waiting we were able to sit and eat our dinner and enjoy not moving for a few minutes.

The cab came and took us to our hotel for the night. I had already called to see if there was any Space A planes, but none were to fly out until Tuesday afternoon. Our hotel was great! We stayed on base in the Temporary Living Facility (TLF) and basically had a small apartment for only $40. The kids said they felt like they were living in a palace. We got a good nights rest and then headed to the airport in the hopes of catching a 9:40a.m. flight. The flight got delayed until 2 that afternoon, of course. The airport was pretty great though. There was plenty of seating, a children's room full of toys and books, and a very nice playground outside, where we could watch the planes take off (well, none that were headed in the direction we were trying to go or that were taking passengers, ha ha ha). The post exchange, commissary, and Burger King were a five minute walk, so that was great as well.

2 o'clock came and went and the flight was delayed until 11p.m. It was then that I found out that this flight was actually from Maguire AFB and had actually taken off to go to Germany the night before, flown two hours and then turned around and came back due to mechanical errors. So there were a lot of people stranded from that flight at Dover. Also, there were several people that had been waiting 3 or more days to catch a flight. . . GREAT I thought, we get to live in the airport. Fun, Fun, Fun. There were 3 other flights to Germany scheduled that day, none of which flew, well one did, but it was carrying explosives and thank goodness, wasn't taking any passengers. The flight from Maguire was set to take off at 7 in the morning with 40 extra seats, so we said prayer we'd get on and that it would take off,with all mechanical errors fixed... important. So we spent the night at the airport, catching very few ZZZZs, as you can imagine. Come 4 o'clock in the morning the kids and I woke up, had breakfast and began the wait for roll call to see if we'd get on. Roll call started at 6 and they were calling people up one every ten minutes. It was hard for me to keep track of the seats, because of how slow they were going. at 7:30 they said they were no longer taking anyone, because the plane had to take off. They weren't full, it was just time to go, because the guys checking people in didn't start early enough. Great!

So I call my mom and let her know we won't be on that flight and begin to sit and wait. When we see an officer in uniform start fussing at those guys to fill the plane, he wasn't flying a half empty plane when so many families were waiting to fly, oh yeah, and an air show was starting the next day and no more flights would be leaving for 1 week. Joy and pandemonium when people heard this. All but 3 people were taken on the flight. My mom called as were checking in so I was able to tell her we were on our way, good timing too, as she was so excited and anxious for us to come she was in the process of buying us tickets. As we were boarding the plane, Noleigh started to cry because she was scared of taking off, so when we sat down, we each took some Dramamine and promptly, from the drug and lack of sleep , passed out. I woke up 6 hours into the flight. Noleigh woke up and wanted to know if we had taken off yet, I was glad I could answer not only had we taken off, we were almost landing. Before landing some chick who had gone out partying with her friends the night before got sick and we had to have an ambulance waiting for her at the other end, and guess what?

That's right, because of the swine flu scare our whole flight was quarantined until they figured out if she was contagious. Once they found out the situation, they just had us fill out our personal information so they could contact us in case it was serious, and we were finally able to pass through customs, leave the airport terminal and be officially in Germany. So very exciting. We stayed the night at this beautiful German hotel (as it was at this point 1 o'clock a.m. in Germany). We got a good nights rest and headed to my mom's.

I am so thankful we got here by my target time. How blessed we were to get on the first flight that actually flew out, and as luck would have it was on a plane that should have left Maguire AFB, the other base I was debating to go to catch a flight. I will add pictures as soon as I can. It has been a true adventure with lots of suspense so far. I can't wait for tomorrow!