At times it seemed this small part of our mission would be impossible. Getting everything together before leaving the states. Selling our house. Flying half way around the world sure seemed impossible a few days ago.
We had so many late nights getting everything together in time to leave for France, but we did it. Tuesday morning we were pretty much packed and ready to go with minimal loose ends that could be taken care of later. We headed to the title office and signed all the papers to sell our house. The excitement was very short-lived, since we had to rush home to finish packing up the bags and throw them in the 2 vans that were headed for Chicago. We met up with Micah's family at a Culver's near the airport for one last treat and then made our way to O'Hare where we had great help unloading all of our bags, taking back our rental and checking our 8 ginormous bags. We all walked to security together and said our last goodbyes before leaving the states.
Right before saying the last of all of our goodbyes.
Now Micah and I were on our own to get our 3 little ones and all our stuff to France. Stuff: 5 carry-on bags, 5 personal bags (think plane activities for the kids' bags), 2 car seats, and an umbrella which wouldn't fit in any other bag. We decided, since we could, we would take both a regular stroller and a sit and stand stroller to get all our kids and stuff to the airplane. It was smooth sailing through security and all the way to our gate. The first flight was the longest, yet overnight. I figured we would sleep most of the way over the ocean to Dublin, Ireland. Apparently, our airline didn't think we should. They decided to serve dinner a few hours into the flight. Thankfully the kids kept sleeping, but not for long. For some reason, two of them woke up; Sam went back to sleep with some persuasion, but Liza did not. We didn't get much sleep before they served breakfast 2 hours before getting off the plane. We arrived in Ireland at 8 a.m. (2 a.m. Central Time). It was a little crazy getting our travel-weary kids, car seats & all of our bags off the plane. I was so glad we had our strollers handy on which to load everything. Haha! Not the case. We quickly found out that we would have to do some walking without the help of wheels. We had to walk all the way to the terminal, a very long walk with sleepy kids and lots of stuff. Remember how I said "3 little ones?" Not so little when tired and needing to be carried.
Thoughts of a 2 year old on an airplane, "Must stay awake!"
We found our strollers and walked all around the terminal to end up practically where we started to wait for our next flight. We had a few hours to wait, but they passed quickly. The kids were some how really excited to get on the next flight so we really didn't have any problems getting them on. From Micah's e-mail to family: "One of the highlights for me came in Dublin where we were having a handful with sleep-deprived older kids who also needed to release energy but we were about to board. The attendant had just come over to gate check a buggy and simply said to us it was time to pre-board the families. To which, Sam starts dancing a four-year-old's circle dance and cheering at a surprisingly acceptable decibel, 'Yeah! It's time to board. Time to go to France!' Hands in the air, Liza joins the circle dance and chant for a minute. Got a few chuckles from others around."
Our second flight was only 2 hours long, but we were so tired by this point that we all slept the whole flight. It was so nice to get some sleep. That is, until it was time to depart the plane and our kids didn't want to wake up and walk on their own. With a little help from the stewardesses, we carried all 3 kids off the plane along with all of our stuff. Once we were off the plane at the gate (where one would normally pick up their stroller) we were left to carry everything by ourselves without any wheels. Apparently, even though we checked our strollers at the gate we had to go all the way to baggage claim - which was after customs - to pick them up. Really?! We finally convinced sleepy Sam to walk on his own albeit lightly crying along the way. I carried a couple personal bags and the two car seats (1 with a baby in it), and Micah was loaded with the rest of our bags and Liza. Since the camera was buried, I'll leave to your imagination the picture of Micah loaded down by all the bags and a 2 year old! Getting through security was fun; we had no problems getting our passports stamped (except for me scratching my knuckles up trying to get the passports out of the first bag Micah loaded on his shoulders). Thinking we were almost there, right after the stamps was a one-way security gate that Micah couldn't possibly fit through with all the bags and once I went through I couldn't go back to help him. Micah had to throw most of the bags through to me as to not set off the alarm, which we actually set off a couple times anyway (you would think someone would have helped us, but I can only imagine they were too busy chuckling at the sight).
You can imagine Micah looked a little like this!
We finally got to our strollers and 8 ginormous bags (thankfully they were all there). I went to get a couple of carts to put our bags on, but realized they only take coins and all we had were paper Euros. After being the last to disembark the plane and getting through to the baggage claim area, there was no one around to ask for coins from, absolutely no one! European fliers are rather quick and efficient. Micah started carrying our 50lb bags 2 by 2 to the first exit door. We then had to find a way to get through, not one, but two one-way doors and a security gate. Thankfully this one was a little wider than the last one. By this time a few airport employees came through and explained that we just needed a plastic chip to get a cart. Apparently the carts don't cost a thing, you just have to have a little plastic chip and know how to read French. Who knew?! And where exactly were we supposed to obtain these chips?! So, we loaded up 3 carts and gradually got through our last 3 obstacles before seeing "Wildauer" held up on a sign by our taxi-bus driver. Whew, we had made it to France and would eventually make it to Albertville without any problems. Mission impossible was somehow possible.
Mission Possible!
