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I flew to Arlington on Thursday afternoon to speak at the homeschool conference there. When I got to the hotel, I discovered a surprise in my bag: the entire brand-new bottle of Robitussin spilled out all over my during the flight. I had brought it just in case my cold came back and had double-checked that the lid was on tight when I packed. I should have put it in a plastic baggie, but at least I had the presence of mind to pack it in my extra bag, not in my suitcase where most of my clothes were. Gratefully, only a white cami ended up suffering a casualty in the episode. There could have been a much, much worse outcome - especially since I had gotten brave this trip and packed white pants to wear for one of my speaking days. (Yes, white pants!!! I was kind of scared that clumsy me was going to sit in grease or something right after I put them on - but I somehow managed to wear them all day long without a mishap!) 
These three girls were my on-the-ground team for this conference. They helped run the booth, took care of all the details of getting me set up in my speaking rooms, talked to countless attendees, and made sure I got to eat, sleep, and be where I needed to be. They stayed quite busy and I appreciated their willingness to put in long days on my behalf. It was my first time to travel with two of them and it was the very first conference for one of them to work and they were amazing! Also, I don't know how women in TX keep their hair looking nice. The humidity made any effort you put into your hair kind of useless. My curls turned into frizz in about 10 minutes! 
This was one of my favorite pictures of the conference. This is Amanda - a friend I've known for over 13 years and never actually met in real-life. She was incredibly sweet and it was so fun to get to meet her and spend time with her in person after all these years. Spending time with her was the highlight of my weekend! 
When I was flying down to Dallas, it occurred to me that I was supposed to be flying back home on Sunday and that Dallas is super close to Kansas. So then, I got this crazy idea to look and see if I could get a super cheap flight to Kansas to spend a few hours with my mom on Mother's Day and then fly back to TN from there. Jesse spent some time researching flights and found a dirt cheap option that would give me about 4.5 hours in Kansas on Mother's Day and still get me home in the evening. It seemed like the perfect idea, so we got the ticket and then I called my mom up and surprised her. Problem was, Sunday morning, when I got to the airport around 7:20 a.m. for my flight out, it was raining and my flight got delayed and then delayed again and then delayed again. By about 9 a.m., basically every flight out from Dallas was grounded - either cancelled completely, delayed by a few hours, or stuck on the Tarmac for a few hours. It was surreal to be sitting at the airport with nothing going in or coming out and everyone just camped out at gates, hoping that the rain would let up so that flights could begin taking off again. I had gotten re-booked on a flight to Minneapolis and then to Kansas and thought I was going to make the flight, but then, after waiting for a few hours thinking it was going to board at any moment, it was also cancelled. So I went and waited in another long line to try to find another flight. I was so relieved to get on another flight directly to Kansas that was supposed to leave at 4:19 p.m. There was another flight to Kansas that was supposed to leave at 1:50 p.m. but it had been (supposedly) slightly delayed. They couldn't get a seat for me at the desk or over the phone, so I ran halfway across the airport to make it to that gate to see if possibly I could get a seat or be put on standby. When I finally got to that gate, there was a standby list of about 27 people and they were pretty much all there. So I decided to instead head for the 4:19 p.m. flight where I had a confirmed ticket. By this time, a few flights were getting out - very few, but I was at least encouraged that planes were actually moving again. The problem was, things got SO backed up while the planes were all grounded, that by the time flights actually started going out again the systems were in mass chaos and overwhelmingly backed up. 
{This book by Shaunti Feldhahn is so good. I highly recommend it if you want to better understand your husband, son, boyfriend, etc.} I got to the gate for the 4:19 p.m. flight - which was halfway across the airport in the other direction! - and discovered it was delayed by about 30 minutes. So there was nothing to do but wait for updates. The pilots and crew showed up and I expected them to get on the plane at the gate and then have us start boarding. But instead, the crew just stood around and waited. They finally told us that the plane at the gate wasn't our plane… that our plane had flown in and was sitting on the Tarmac somewhere with people in it. They couldn't locate it just yet, but it was out there and we just needed to sit tight and wait. 5 p.m. came and went. 6 p.m. came and went. 7 p.m. came and went. Still no sign of our plane. But nothing had changed with the story we were being told and our crew was still there so we kept holding onto hope. {I say "we" because, by this time, the passengers on our flight were developing quite the bond - sharing our crazy travel stories from the day so far, trying to find out any new info we could, and commiserating about the bizarre nature of the day!} At close to 9 p.m., a plane pulled up to our gate and we couldn't be more thrilled. Only to discover that it wasn't our plane. What a let-down! Finally, after sitting at the gate and waiting for over 6 hours for our plane that was supposed to be pulling in at any minute, they cancelled our flight around 10 p.m. And we left with very few options… especially since there were no more flights out to Kansas on Sunday night. I wasn't sure what on earth I was supposed to do. I just wanted to be somewhere - anywhere - in a bed so I could go to sleep. But I also wanted to get to Kansas and the only flight option they were giving me was a flight on Tuesday mid-morning - which would never work since I needed to get home to my family in TN. So I prayed and asked God to give me clear direction. And right after I prayed, a gal who I had briefly met at the gate, came up to me and said, "I know you don't really know me at all, but I was thinking of just driving to Kansas. Would you be at all interested in driving with me?" I usually would never go jump in the car with a stranger, but after being at the airport for over 14 hours and having gotten to know her a little bit, Jesse and I both felt comfortable with it. So I jumped into her car and we drove most of the night to get to Kansas. She ended up being the sweetest gal and we had such great conversation in the car! 
I was completely exhausted by the time my mom met us at this gal's hotel to pick me up when we made it to Kansas early Monday morning, but I was so happy to have finally made it to Kansas. I slept for a few hours and then got to spend the morning and early afternoon with my mom before catching a flight from Kansas back to TN. It was so, so good to get to spend a little time with my family - every bit worth the long travel day and tiredness. But I was never so happy to step foot back on the ground in TN and be re-united with my family late Monday evening. And I'm happily going to (hopefully!) not need to step foot in another airport for at least a few weeks. I think I've had my fill of airport life to last me for at least another month.  
I posted this on Instagram tonight and thought it was a fitting way to end this post - because it's what I reminded myself of during the airport adventure:
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