Crossing the World
Taking one last deep breath of Michigan winter, we entered the minuscule airport of Gwinn. And by crossing that tiny threshold, we were thus immediately connected to the entire world. Airports have a magic like that, no matter how modest in size they are.
With unusual peace and sufficient time, we enjoyed watercolor painting, checkers, and storytelling with grandma and grandpa before checking through security. Along with running into multiple folks we knew. Gotta love small-town living.
Finally, it was off into the air. The power of flight and anticipation for the journey ahead filling our bodies with a flush of excitement. We gazed out at the expansive winter land, the rugged coastline along Lake Michigan and finally the glowing afternoon haze of the Chicago skyline. Then this cozy little cabin of Northern Michiganders were thrust and dispersed into the hubbub of the Chicago terminal, full of every language, color, and culture imaginable. Ahh, welcome back to the wide-world!
Another 3+ flight took us into Dallas, and much to my shock, my dear friend Mercedes actually took herself and her three small children on a spontaneous 3 hour drive up from Austin to visit with us during our 5 hr layover! One of those random messages you throw out half-jokingly "Hey, you guys wanna come up for our layover?" you never ACTUALLY expect to come to fruition.
The kids jaws dropped to the ground when they were reunited with these friends that grew to being family during our 8 yrs in Austin. They could not believe it! I told them there might be a surprise at the Dallas airport, but never in all their imaginations would they have guessed THIS kind of surprise!
So naturally - thanks to Elise (I had texted my family for ideas of what to do!) - we headed out of the airport to spend our layover in a light flashing - music bumping - arcade extravaganza -bowling alley - laser tag venue. Filling the few hours with ALL the activities along with many hugs, laughs, exclamations, and pizza. Just as we were considering the need to be responsible and head back to the airport, a man approaches us and offers us the remaining minutes on an UNLIMITED game pass for the arcade. So YEAH did we ever use those 30 minutes to the last drop all acting like a bunch of kids in a candy store playing every game we wanted running haywire. WHAT A GIFT. Felt like a little "God kiss" on top of an already unexpected heap of joy in the midst of an otherwise mostly-monotonous day of sitting on our bums. The best gift of all though of course, was the time and loyalty of such solid life-long friends to connect with.
It was a fantastic little - heh well I should say BIG - Texas reunion.
We were overjoyed, filled to the brim, and absolutely reset and ready to board the 15+ hour ocean crossing flight.
Our gate in Dallas had one last parting gift. A giant metal castle/sculpture and escalators! The kids had another round of delighted exploration, and then it was time to get into the vortex for the long-haul.
We boarded the plane with gigantic grins plastered to our faces. Danforth's final comment to Samuel had been "We are going to have TVs in front of our faces for 15 hours!!" and the kids took no time at all to get their eyes plastered to the seat screens immediately.
As you can imagine, the following 15 hours were filled with a combination of gorging on movies/games/food with a few winks of sleep here and there. Bodies continually adjusted attempting to compensate for lack of horizontal space. Positions would hold for short spurts of sleep, and we'd wake again. Movies helped pass the hours. More shallow sleep, more movies. Repeat the pattern.
When the final hours of the trip came. It all passed in a quick blur. I was immersed in "The Hobbit" movie series, when suddenly breakfast and immigration passports are being put before me, New Zealand's epic aerial view is suddenly out the window, and we're told to prepare for landing.
It was all a rush. I tried to digest the reality of actually arriving, the excitement, along with shoveling breakfast down and trying to figure out where another pen was to fill out this form with a thousand questions. I was glad to be there, but suddenly being jostled around with my head in a big fog...I'll admit, I kinda lost my cool once we were off the plane. The floodgates on my eyes were just sorta stuck in the "flood" position if you know what I mean. No amount of deep breathing could stop my darn eyes from leaking. So while I sat in the middle of our our luggage dealing with the wet face of mine, Corey dealt with the 1000 questions on the forms. Highlight of that not-so-polished-moment was when little Melody came over to me, placed a hand on my shoulder, then my cheek, and peering into my eyes with all earnestness said "It's okay mommy, when we get there you can take a nap and Daddy, Danforth, and I will do everything." Golly, what love.
We found our way to the bio-checking portion of customs. NZ is super strict and doesn't allow any meat/dairy/fruits/veggies. Something about standing in line for that, chowing down on our carrot sticks we'd soon have to chuck, and breathing for an unhurried moment, helped me re-gain some composure. We got through bio-check/customs fine, and suddenly it was...
WELCOME TO NEW ZEALAND.
We stepped out into the brightness of the morning sun, feeling like a bunch of fried potatoes...or whatever...to the gorgeous warm loving arms of Aunt Therese.
It was like a welcome home.
-M
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