A Long Journey

On Friday June 25th my parents helped load up mine and Mike's belongings and we headed off to the airport. This has been a much anticipated event for us. An adventure for sure, but also something very difficult to do when the time came.

We had said many of our goodbyes to family the night before with hugs and tears, and now we had to say goodbye to my parents, again with lots of tears.

We got checked in and our luggage was sent off to where ever it is that the send it (we were hoping for Japan) and then went to the never-ending security line. Mike and I both set off the alarms...he finally figured out what was setting it off for him, I had to get a pat-down. I guess they had to make sure it was really a pregnant belly under that shirt and not something else.

We got out to the gate and requested that they change our seat assignments so that we could have an aisle seat. We were told that the flight was totally full and they couldn't do anything to help us...not what I wanted to hear. Then we grabbed some lunch and had just enough time to eat before we boarded.

We were 3 rows from the very back of the plane...and I swear that they shrank the seats! Mike was in the very middle of the row and I was next to him with the aisle seat next to me. I started out the flight annoyed, because we had requested a seat next to the aisle so that I could get up as often as I needed to but we were told no, then we had a stand-by passenger next to me--he was 8 years old and his dad was seated 20 rows in front of us.

The flight from Dulles to Tokyo was 13.5 hrs long. I have to say that I was impressed with myself several times during the flight. The little boy next to me pretty much conked out so anytime I needed to get out I faced a dilemma...how? I would pull my feet up onto the seat, stand up on my chair and walk across the armrests every time I needed to get in or out of the row. I managed, but I hope I never have to do that again!

We got to Tokyo and made it through customs and then found our next gate with some effort. Our second flight was much nicer, with more room. It was only 2.5 hrs long. When we finally got to Okinawa we got our bags and met our sponsor. He and his family have been great! They have made every effort to help us get things set up and get out of the hotel.

I have told many people that I am planning on using "Space A" flights to come home once in a while...after our very long journey, we'll see how often that happens :) The important thing is that we are here and safe, but exhausted!