The Best-Laid Plans...

Some of you may know this, but it was a big hassle trying to make it to Europe as planned. Although I applied for my passport 14 weeks in advance, I had to make an appointment at the Houston passport agency the day before my flight left. Even though my mom was panicking, I was confident it would work out. After waiting in line for over 6 hours, I was finally told that I could pick up my passport the next day AFTER 10:30 AM. This made me a little worried as my flight from Dallas to London was at 2:35 PM. No problem, I just booked a flight from Houston to Dallas. Fortunately, I was able to stay at my old friend Stacy’s apt. (thanks again!) I did manage to get my passport at 10:45 and sped away to the airport. Unfortunately, I missed my flight. So I decided to call my mom. And then my phone died. And I started to pray hard. A ray of hope strengthened me as I was able to change my flight to a direct Houston departure. I bought a phone card and called home. My mom was supposed to meet my travel buddies Marcus and Nate at the airport but she couldn’t find them. And their phones were off. So we paged them a million times (more like 10, but yeah). No luck. The adrenaline was starting to wear off, and my mom’s anxiety started to chip away at my resolve. I was about to just drive home when my mom miraculously finds them (she didn’t know how they looked other than the description I gave her). With a “thank you Jesus!”, I drove to Stacy’s apt where I left my car for my parents to pick up. I got a ride back to the airport, found my gate, took my seat, and let out a big sigh of relief. Hard part over…or so I thought.