A little about our departure …..

          We made a mad rush for the airport leaving late.  We are the last ones to board the flight (not a great start).  There were so many things to do before we left.  I had only a few hours sleep two nights before and zero sleep the night before we left.  I finally started packing my bag around 3am.  My goal was to leave at 5am; instead we were pulling out of the driveway at 6:15am.  I was a little nervous since the flight departed at 8am and we had to drive almost an hour and park our car for Amber’s friend to drive back.  We said a few prayers on the way down.  Long story short, we just barely made it.

The flight from LA to Honolulu was pretty uneventful although I will say that Delta needs a refresher course in customer service.  We were excited to meet up with Amber once we arrived at LAX.  She had flown up to LA 10 days earlier and we planned to meet up for the flight.  I had her passport and so she couldn’t check in, we had to find her at the Air France check in.   From Deltas gate where we landed we had to exit and get on a shuttle and find her. 

We saw her from a distance and she came running toward us.  Big hugs were exchanged and it felt so good to be together.  We gathered her bags and said, “Let’s do this”.  

We got to the Air France counter and proceeded to get Amber checked in (we were pre-checked from Hawaii).  There was some murmuring with the workers and a supervisor was summoned.   They told us that Amber’s flight has been cancelled and she cannot come with us.  I was dumbfounded and asked what they were talking about.  Apparently, because Amber didn’t get on the flight in Honolulu, she could not get on in LA.  They said it was considered one flight and that her ticket had been cancelled when she didn’t check in at Honolulu (yes the delta person failed to mention this to me when I checked in with my other kids).  I told them that I had paid a lot of money for this flight to Paris and Amber was here and she was getting on.  Suffice it to say they were not very nice and they said there was nothing they could do about it because the computer system had blocked her out.  I told them that no where had I read that or been told that or have heard of that and they told me that it is the same with all the airlines.  I asked them to show me in writing and they told me they couldn’t.  They said Amber was not getting on the flight unless we bought her another ticket, which was $2,500.  At this point, Amber burst into tears.  The flight was already starting to board and we were still at the check in gate.  The worker said we could book a cheaper flight if we looked online but as I just mentioned, the flight was already boarding!!!  The worker also said that maybe we should leave Amber and she could meet up with us in France when she finds a ticket (by this time I was thinking this chick must be on drugs).  I then told her I wasn’t going to let her travel alone.  She gave me this look like I was an idiot and she said, “but you let her come to California?  I wanted to punch her in the face. 

“The irony is that just minutes before we were so happy to be together and to be embarking on our journey.  Now, we were told we cannot be together.  The thought of starting our journey without every family member was out of the question and when the worker asked me what I was going to do I told her I would purchase Amber the ticket.  Amber was still crying because she felt so guilty and vowed to work really hard so she could pay me back.  I told her to stop crying and remember that it is only money and the main thing is that we are together and that we are safe.  I also told her that we weren’t going to let this spoil our experience and we would never speak of it again.  In this experience I had a moment of clarity, which was that I would do or pay whatever necessary to make sure that we were together.  Amber and I talked about this while we were on the 10.5 hour flight (together – YAY!).  We talked about how in this life we forget that we will do whatever it takes to be together until that is challenged.  Sometimes we stop fighting or advocating for each other and we need to do that for things that are not only temporal, but are spiritual too.  For things that will matter not just in this life,  but things that have worth eternally so that we are all together forever.  It was so cute to watch Ambers siblings comfort her and tell her not to worry about it.  My kids are all tight when it comes to money but when it came to buying her sister a $2,500 ticket, the money was of no consequence!

this is ambers empty seat next to us that I already paid for but was now "unavailable".  I should have taken a photo of ambers first class seat (I wish I had a photo of her in tears too but at the time it was the last thing on our minds).  

*for some reason the ticket I had to buy Amber was in first class while we were all in coach.  There was an empty seat beside her and yes you guessed it, I used that empty seat in first class!