Tour of the tarmac, Texas style!

As I said in our first email blast on Monday, we have so many God-stories already about this trip. You know most of them from before we left if you were able to keep up with our website. This one is going to be on our "favorites" list for a very long time ... how God got us onto our Buenos Aires flight from Dallas!!!!

Our flight leaving Denver was delayed and we sat on the tarmac for quite a while - nothing surprising there, for those of you who fly regularly. However, as we got into the air, the captain said that there was stormy weather over Abilene and in order to avoid it, we'd have to take a slight longer route to Dallas. We looked at our watches and, knowing that we had only an short layover in Dallas before our flight left for Bs. As., we began to pray that we'd make our connection. We knew we'd be ok even if we missed our flight, but the thought of being "stuck" in Dallas instead of Denver with two tired kids wasn't really our idea of a fun overnight vacation. No offense to those of you who love Dallas (or the airport there!). =) We don't know what we missed out on because we never even got to see the inside of the airport in Dallas, as God would have it.

The flight from Denver to Dallas went smoothly, but we landed just 10 minutes before our Bs. As. connecting flight was scheduled to leave. We knew they had already boarded that plane and the flight attendants were giving out gate numbers like crazy for everyone who had connecting flights because we were so delayed. We looked at the airport diagram on the American Airlines magazine and it looked like we'd have to run faster than Eric Liddell (for you Chariots of Fire fans) to make our connection from one terminal to the other. My seatmate was doing her best to tell us the fastest way to get onto the train (you mean, we have to ride a train too?!) so we could get to our gate quickly. It was controlled chaos, but chaos, nonetheless. I can honestly tell you that as hard as my heart was racing, my prayers of complete dependence upon God were flying up to his throne of grace. He, as He always is, was listening ... He is so good and His timing is always perfect. Just typing out this story is encouraging my heart because today, I've had to remind myself that His timing IS perfect ... even as we're still waiting for our Brazilian visas (more on that later).

We were allowed to get off the plane first since we had a connecting flight to catch and the gentleman sitting next to us grabbed our stroller for us and helped us get all our carry-ons off the plane since Megan & Micah were being compliant, but let's face it, a kid is a kid whether you're in a hurry or not! (And Megan is always Megan, so she had to "study" every person she passed on the plane ... it would have been so hilarious if we hadn't been so anxious to make our next flight!). As soon as we stepped off the plane, a messenger of mercy met us at the door and asked if we were going to Buenos Aires. When he confirmed that we had all our bags with us, we were escorted outside the plane (we didn't even have to enter the tunnel to the terminal!), onto the tarmac and driven in a van to the employee entrance for our gate. The American Airlines staff was waiting for us with stroller tags and smiles (the latter is always a good thing when you're already stressed!) and we made it onto our plane with hearts full of praise and thanksgiving to our Almighty God who holds the planets and plane connections in His hands. Like I said, we knew we'd make our flight to Bs. As. ... eventually. HOW we made that flight, though, was up to Him and boy, did He make sure we had a great story to tell the world about His provision and timing. He is trustworthy, we have told Megan & Micah & each other. He is worthy of praise!! And we have a nice little story to stand on those truths (on top of ALL the great stories He has already given us in His Word and in our lives!).

My two favorite parts of this story are:
1) When we walked outside the plane, it was windy and we had to step out onto those long, metal stairs ... I was gripping Megan's hand tightly (because those stairs weren't made for children by Graco, by any means) and as we got to the bottom, there was a big jump and Tom, the grandfatherly driver of our van held out his arms to Megan and said, "Come on and jump, sweetie." She did so with glee and as he carried her to the van, I heard her telling him, with the wind whipping through her hair, "I like you!" It made me smile. Better yet, it made Tom smile. =)

2) When we got ourselves and our carry-ons settled in the van, Tom told us that we were waiting for one more passenger to join us and he'd go find him, so we had about 3 minutes as a family to rejoice in God's goodness and to pray as a family. It reminded me of the time when we got our airline tickets for this trip ... I treasure those "parting of the Red Sea" celebration moments in our family story ... Rejoice with us! Our children are learning along with us that God is a God who saves, a God who works miracles, even when He doesn't have to. He gets ALL THE GLORY - and we praise Him for that!