Another angry storm swept through Friday afternoon, leaving us without power and water for several hours, yet, gracing us with a favorite past time of ditch jumping. We had not had this amount of rain in the 9 years of living here. Our own house or chalet was now surrounded by a moat, perfect foreshadowing of chateaus to come!
Monday, August 8, came! Yes it did. The kids were incredible helpers with packing, cleaning, and accomplishing last minute chores, including Randy asking for a picture of the house.
As we were loading up our suitcases for our 2 hour ride to DC, to see Jan and family before we flew off, one of the 10 pieces of luggage broke. You have got to be kidding me really!!!!
Prior to pulling out of 5355 we prayed for mercy, truth, righteousness, peace, and grace for us as we traveled and for the people who we come in contact with, that may be kind helpers for us.
Finally we pulled into DC, a few hours later than we wanted but still with time. Jan to the rescue, by grace and because she is also an experienced traveler, having exceedingly more patience than me that day, she was able to get the luggage to work with the help of brute force and duck tape!!!! Back to the 10 pieces of luggage before someone starts judging us :).
Each of us had 1 bag under the plane (50lbs), 1 carry-on (who cares about the weight) and 1 personal item (backpack with laptop, change of clothes and CANDY). We paid for one more under the plane which allowed us to bring peanut butter, chocolate chips, sensodyne toothpaste, school books, contact solution, and Randy’s comfy pillow. OK and I snuck in CFA ketchup packets, CFA sauce, butterscotch cook-n-serve pudding and a box of Kraft Mac & Cheese for when members in our family are having a very rough “I miss home” day. PRICELESS or $100, but who is counting at this point!?!?
Back to the airport I go now with the kids and luggage!!! I dropped the kids and 10 pieces of luggage off at Air France, chatted with the agent and told them I would be back in 10 minutes. I had to park the car for the Frenchies to have when they arrived 4 days later, on Friday. For the LOVE, the shuttle system was PAINFULLY slow. I returned to the kids 40 minutes later (HOKA shoes are amazing especially with plantar fasciitis), seeing 3 agents, 2 kids, and 10 pieces of luggage all waiting for ME!!! I was panicking, Mazie was extremely encouraging and reassured me we were all fine and we could still make it to the plane. The Air France agent, an angel in a navy blue turban, was reassuring and super gracious. The 4 bags to go under were all the precise weight!!! Jokingly I asked if he could just check our carry-ons too! He did it for free! Relief and rest for this weary momma! Security and passport control were a breeze, guess so if you are the last ones to go through!!! We arrived at the gate with time to spare. As we ventured down the terminal looking for a little dinner we came upon the navy blue turban friend. Once again he assured me we had time to get something. I had my final thank you to my Navy Blue Turban friend as he scanned our tickets to enter the plane! The flight was uneventful, kids slept very little. This USA stage of life had come to a hiatus, full of grace, which we all 3 reflected on as we flew over the Atlantic.
Waiting for take off
Lees in France 