(Ok faithful blog readers, all 2 of you (lol), i wrote this blog right before leaving for the states and somehow forgot to post! opps - more to follow directly since a lot has happened since last writing not posting!)
Sometime right around thanksgiving we found out that there would no longer we a basketball game scheduled on December 26th. Something... not sure what exactly; but something caused the game to be no more. So with that I begged John to open the tight grip he has on his wallet (not always a bad thing I think it’s fair to say) and call our travel agent to see if there was any way we could leave early and be home Christmas. My sweet husband reluctantly said he’d look into it and in the end he had the agent book us on a flight leaving the 23rd - I was thrilled! I would be back on US soil for the Christmas holiday with family; the kids would have a tree and their presents waiting and of course their would be fantastic food - food I have sooooo missed over these past few months. I was thrilled and if the truth be known... John was too (after he got over the fun little charge they give you to change your tickets - lol). John and I also decided that it would be really fun to surprise his parents and not tell them we were coming and just show up! They were expecting that we would not be home until the 29th because of the game scheduled the 26th (which we had not told them was cancelled obviously).
Well if you have been keeping up with our blog you would know that since we arrived here in Macedonia four months ago it would seem that anything and everything that could go wrong has so I guess I should not have been surprised when things seemed to jeopardize our travel plans. The team had a regularly scheduled game on the 22nd and a few months ago the team (Pellister) we were set to play approached us and asked if we would be willing to host the game, although they were supposed to be the host team. We of course said that was fine and then for reasons unbeknownst to anyone Pellister decided a week ago that they in fact now wanted to host the game. Now this would have been no issue if our flight was not leaving on the 23rd @ 6am; 8 hours away from the Bitola - the city where Pellister plays. So we were faced with a dilemma... but then also a possible solution. It says in the league rules that either team can request a switch 24hours before or after the regular scheduled time of the game... so John set out to get that done. He had the President of our bb club call the other team’s president and see if they would work with us. Of course they were not helpful and instead of just saying NO and keeping the game the 22nd, Pellister decided to schedule the game for the 23rd (because according to the rules it would be just fine). In making the game the 23rd it was the hope of the other team that some of our American players would be gone home for the Christmas holiday and they could perhaps win (oh, i forgot the mention this team is in last place in the league). Our players in fact did not go home... but stayed and all had to waste lots of money bc of it... perhaps though John and I got it the worse.
On Monday when we realized that the game could not be changed and that John could in no way make the flight on the 23rd he called our travel agent and explained that He would need to change his ticket to the soonest available flight after the 23rd and that Me and the boys would still be traveling on the 23rd. I of course was not thrilled about this and I may or may not have thrown a few temper-tantrums about it all, ok, i did throw more than a few temper-tantrums - but can you blame me. I was going to be traveling for approx. 20 hours by myself with the a 2 and 5 year old boys with a great deal of energy - was so not not looking forward to that, but trying to cling to the surprise we were trying to pull off and the JOY the boys would have to be with grandpa and grandma I was doing my best to stay positive. So John changed his ticket - earliest was the 26th; which was a real bummer. So as I began to pack and on sometime mid-morning on the 22nd John noticed an e-mail from the travel agent confirming not only him on the Dec 26th flight, but me and boys as well. He thought it must be a mistake and called Lufthansa since it was too early in the am to reach our travel agent in Minnesota. Lufthansa said we were still booked but had no assigned seat.... he assured John is would probably be ok and to just call our travel agent, which we were not able to do for 5 more hours. So at 4 I called and to my horror the travel agent had made an error and we were not booked on the flight for the 23rd. He proceeded to tell me that there was no other available seats on any flight before Christmas at this time and that, get this... this is the kicker - He would not be able to refund us the second rebooking fee he charged us even though it was his mistake!!!!!!! I stood in front of the mirror in our the front hall of our tiny apartment and fell apart.
One thing i realized in all this is how much I miss my family and my friends! I have been so blessed in my short life thus far to have been given the family and friends I have. With that being said you can only imagine how deeply I was crushed when the joy and excitement of being home with Family on Christmas was snatched from me. I have been reminding Brady a lot lately that Jesus is the “reason for the season” the reason we celebrate Christmas. But going hand and hand with that Jesus is also the reason we give love and receive love and why my heart longed to be with our Family on Christmas. Not sure why God allows certain things... but He does. Wish He could have allowed me to go home today or at least by Christmas Day, but He did not. It was awful to tell John’s parents we were supposed to arrive on their steps in 24, but won’t be anymore. Sometimes the best laid plans don’t turn out how you have thought they would and btw turns out that bc off all the snow storms going on in Western Europe that we might have very well gotten stuck and unable to be home for Christmas anyways.
We spent Christmas eve relaxing. I got a $10 pedicure and then made dinner for one of our players (stuck here too) and an MK handball player. It was an exciting night - highlight was when Brady pants-ed me in front of everyone... like i said HIGHLIGHT! Christmas day we drove to Bulgaria and spent the day with friends and it was really a great day! Not the same as being home in the states with family but if truth be told as much as I was looking forward to being back in the US i was not too thrilled to spend Christmas for the first time in 12 years without John... so at least I had that in light of the travel mishap.
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