Moving again...
Six checked bags, three large carryons, four personal items, two carseats and a stroller...
From my parents' door in San Francisco to the door of our hotel room in Bangkok, twenty-five hours' total travel time...
Two flights, a total of 16.5 hours in the air - two take-offs, two landings...
Five sick people, three kids with coughs, including a four-month-old...
Nothing but grace.
Grace from my sister, who stayed up late with me our last two evenings to flat-fold and Ziploc-bag absolutely everything. (Her technique? Sit on the Ziploc to squeeze the air out, zip shut, squidge with fingers to erase the butt-print!)
The mysterious, official-looking white-haired man with a security badge outside our terminal, who asked James if he needed help with our bags... James was opting not to pay $8 for two trolleys but was going to make several trips inside instead, and this man helped him get everything inside to our check-in counter and didn't charge him a thing!
The friendly Asian man at our check-in counter who smiled and nodded at our overweight baggage and didn't charge us a cent, and the extremely helpful girl next to him who blocked out two extra seats on our long-haul flight so I could have room next to me and James and the boys had a row of four...
The family line for security, so we didn't have to wait forever... and the understanding official who passed through my bag of medicines for the flight, even though several bottles were bigger than the limit... Grace.
The helpful flight attendants who made sure we had everything we needed, and moved us up to business class for the last half hour of our flight to Hong Kong to make sure we caught our connecting flight to Bangkok... Grace.
That all our bags made the connection, and they even pulled our stroller off early for us so we could have it during our layover in Hong Kong...
Grace, grace, grace.
Ruby Grace, who slept, nursed or smiled for nearly ALL of the entire 14.5 hour flight to Hong Kong. What an amazing little girl. God's Grace to us! (She did lose it completely on the last two-hour leg from HK to Bangkok, but - seriously, nobody's that perfect)!
Will and Ben, model veteran travelers, who both slept 5 hours on the long-haul flight and spent the rest of the time quietly glued to their screens... (Ben did have a few meltdowns on that last leg, but by then we were too zombie-esque to care!)
My long-suffering, patient husband who put up with my stress-spikes and gives me grace, grace, and more grace.
The fact that there was actually a shuttle van from our hotel waiting at the Bangkok airport, even though we found out later we had mis-booked and they weren't expecting us until the next day! Somehow there was still a driver there, and we went straight to our hotel and were able to add an extra earlier night to our booking with no hassle at all.
Such grace.
Thank you for your prayers! We are so thankful for a few days to recover and recuperate in the warm sunshine before heading back to Central Asia. Pray for health and thank Him for grace!
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