We Have Arrived

Wow- what an adventure. We have arrived safe and sound in Singapore but it took a long time. We got up around 6:15 am on Sept 29 to begin our day. We packed up the last minute things, fed Elyse and we were off (only 30 minutes later than we had hoped). Unfortunately we ran into traffic and it took us double the time to get us to the airport. That put us at the airport 1 hr latter than we wanted to get there.

After checking in all 6 of our bags we headed off to the gate just in time to board, or so we thought. We got to the gate and were all set to get on the plane when we found out it was delayed- not long, but delayed. Well, that 15 minute delay turned into an almost 3 hr delay. Elyse did fine as long as she could walk around. She made a lot of friends.

Finally we are on the plane- Elyse falls asleep and I try and get some sleep or at least watch a movie. About 15 minutes into the flight Elyse waking up screaming like I have never heard her scream. I am trying to calm her down when I see a bit of blood coming out of her nose. I start freaking out and all the worst possible scenarios run through my head. I stop a flight attendant and ask her for help. Big mistake. She basically told me that since I am a first time mom I don't know what I am doing. ( she continued to insult us with a smile through out the trip). The only thing that she was good for was to distract Elyse for a second because at that point Elyse stopped crying. Not the way I had hoped the trip would start.

The rest of the flight went better. Elyse and I walked the aisles and made friends. Elyse liked saying hi to everyone and played peek-a-boo with the very kind lady behind us. this first leg of the trip (13 hrs from Houston Japan) overall went well except for the lack of sleep and the beginning of the flight. Our growing concern as we approached Japan was if we would make our connecting flight. A very nice flight attendant was trying to hook us up with another family on the family headed to Singapore as well. This other family was in first class and because of that would be escorted to the next flight and we could then tag along. Unfortunately that did not happen.

We got off the plane and rushed to find our flight- we had just missed it so we had to find another flight. We were able to do this with little trouble. We even got bulkhead seat and met a very nice flight attendant who hooked us up with slippers, a paper, and kindness.

On the flight Elyse was in and out of sleep for about 3 hours- a little less than half the flight. I felt so sorry for her. Her eyes were all puffy and you could tell that she wanted to sleep but just couldn't. By the time we landed in Singapore it was 12:52 am on Oct 1, 11:52 am Sept 30 in Houston- exactly 28 hrs after we left the house. Crazy!

Because of missing our flight, we had a new problem to deal with. We were planning on meeting up with Toby's parents at the gate (who had flown into Singapore from Indonesia to meet us) but we didn't have a way on telling them that we were on another flight. We hoped that we would see them, but we did not. We searched all around the airport, called people in the States, but couldn't find them. We decided to go to the hotel and figure out a new plan.

As we approached the hotel I looked in the lobby and there were Jack and Jan!!! I was so happy. I jumped out of the taxi and ran inside. Hugs and tears were exchanged. we had arrived and found Toby's parents. Such a relief.

We got to our room settled in and were in bed at 3 am. Elyse woke us up at 5 screaming. We calmed her down and Toby stayed up with her for awhile as I tried to sleep. At 8:30 we began our day. Today we have napped, explored the area, been by the pool, and gotten a cell phone (can't receive calls from the States). Right now Elyse is asleep, Toby and his parents are at the pool and here I am blogging.

It was a rough trip but we made it. Thanks for the prayers and thanks for reading my rambling (I didn't proofread it). I will try and keep you updated on what's happening.