If you’re anything like me, the first time I had to pack for a big European trip, I was like a deer staring into headlights.

I’m going to give you all the tips I’ve learned the hard way for packing light on an overseas trip.

Where do you even begin? What kind of luggage is best? How many outfits should I pack? Will I be able to wash clothes? What is the weather? Are clothing standards different there? What can be both comfortable and nice looking for all my photos?

***I do collect advertising fees from Amazon for all Amazon links that you may purchase through. I 100% stand behind each of these products.***

There are so many questions to consider! I’m going to do my best to answer all of these.

Let’s start with the why for packing lightly.

First off, it is $75 to check one bag per person on a U.S. to London flight. You also have to return home, so that is $150. Now times that by a family of five. Your total is $750, which you just saved by packing light!!

Any time you check luggage, you are risking your bag not making it to your destination when you do, especially if you have any connections whatsoever.

In the U.S. if your bag is late, no biggie. They will drive it to your hotel for you. Overseas, you may not be planning on even staying in the same country the next day. There may be a language barrier. Lost luggage is the last thing you want to deal with.

Also, chances are you are going to be using a mix of trains or taxis to get to your destinations multiple times during your European vacation. Toting a giant suitcase around is a giant pain. You want luggage that feels portable to you. It’s important for you to be able to handle all of your bags yourself at any given time or place on your vacation. You can load get it all on and off trains with ease, it fits into cab trunks, and it isn’t too heavy for you to manage.

Trains are bound to be a part of your European vacation. Walking will be too.

My favorite luggage to use:

A small carry-on size roller bag + a shoulder bag + a light crossbody purse tucked into your shoulder bag = travel perfection.

I’ve tried several different things over the years. For our Italy trip, I took nothing but a giant backpack and a purse. That worked, but I didn’t love my lack of clothing options. Also, the backpack was a little too heavy on my shoulders for long at a time. Plus, I was in Italy. In the big cities of Italy, where we were, pick-pockets are a concern. Backpacks are probably the least secure type of luggage you can use. Even a clumsy thief might successfully swipe something from bookbag without you noticing.

But mostly, I just hated carrying that backpack around. Sometimes my poor husband carried it for me. He’d have his on his back and mine strapped to his front, if we needed to get through a train station especially quickly.

So this is my absolute favorite way to travel. This works when you are going anywhere at all.

I especially like a roller bag with four wheels, but any carry-on size roller bag will do.

Then I choose a purse that is both lightweight and crossbody. My shoulders tire easily, so I put very little in my purse. In fact, for our last big trip I ordered a light weight wallet too. In my purse, I place only the little wallet, sunglasses, phone, hand sanitizer, and chapstick. Carrying a thermos around is too heavy, so unless I’m going somewhere like Pompeii, I buy drinks when I get thirsty and order free water with meals.

Every passenger on an airplane is entitled to two carry-on bags. This is important to remember.

You may place one under the seat in front of you and one in the overhead bins. (Many U.S. airlines now charge you extra for carry-on bags, so make sure you choose the right fare.)

To get around this “one personal bag and one suitcase” rule, I pack my purse into a larger shoulder bag that I will call my personal bag and place under the seat in front of me.

What kind of purse should you take?

I personally prefer a lightweight cross-body. It is harder to snatch your purse or anything in it if you wear it cross-body. You will probably be standing and walking more than usual, so keep it as light as you possibly can.

Now for What to Pack!

Most of us travel during the summer or at Christmas, and the weather does make it different. Either way, I try to limit myself to five basic outfits. You want a couple of pairs of your favorite pants/shorts/skirts that will go with all of the shirts you pack, or at least most of the shirts you pack.

Pick four or five casual tops and one top for dressing nice to go out at night. Or you can pack a dress to go out at night. Many dresses will work for day or night.

Don’t skimp on underwear! Pack five to seven pairs of those just in case. Summer vacations get sweaty, and you may want extra changes. When we were in Israel, I had to go to a store and buy more underwear because I was changing twice a day with the heat.

You want socks that will go with your outfits or at least to wear if your feet get cold at the hotel.

Even in the summer, I pack some kind of sweater or sweatshirt. The airplane ride across the ocean is always cold.

Please learn from my flip-flop lesson, unless you don’t care. Europeans do not approve of flip-flops for everyday wear. They are for the pool or the beach. Ha! Thankfully, I was too ignorant of the fashion rules to feel self-conscious.

They do dress better than us, in most of Europe.

I quickly felt out of place in Rome. It was obvious to me that I was under-dressed. Alan was fine, but I’d packed moisture wicking work out tops and flip-flops. Some of my shirts were okay, but I never felt well dressed when surrounded by so many pretty dresses!

For our UK trip, I was more experienced.

I packed two dresses, a blue shirt, a pink sweater, a teal shirt, a dark blue sleeveless shirt, a pair of jeans, and a pair of hiking capri-length pants. Plus, I wore a pink shirt and a pair of versatile breathable black pants on the plane. I also carried a warm pullover for the plane. For the hotel, I packed two t-shirts to sleep in with sleeping shorts and my cozy slides. Oh! And a hat!

I went light on make-up too, I packed the same basic stuff I wear everyday and no extras. Plus, I got travel sized toiletries.

How I make four or five outfits work for even a two-week trip:

This may sound weird, but we wash our clothes in the sink! Soap is soap. You can even buy a small container of laundry detergent if it’s important to you. I use whatever soap or shampoo I have on hand. I scrub the clothes in the sink wherever we are staying and then hang the clothes to dry.

On our England trip, we were lucky. Even though there were five of us (which is so much laundry), we had two nights where we stayed at a nice apartment. That meant there were plenty of places to hang our clothes to dry.

At the very least, do this hack for your underwear. It’s so easy to wash your underwear in the sink.

Your hotel might even have laundry facilities or service, in which case you can use that.

The most important thing about packing for a big trip like this is comfortable shoes.

I vividly remember having to shop for shoes in Atlanta when I was on vacation with Alan because I was around twenty-five and had not yet learned the comfortable shoe when traveling rule.

Now that I’m in my forties and fighting plantar fasciitis, this isn’t even negotiable. I must wear actual sneakers with everything, even dresses.

For our last trip, I wore one pair of tennis shoes on the plane, and I packed a pair of rehab slides and a backup pair of sneakers. I wasn’t sure yet which tennis shoes would be the most comfortable.

These are my favorite shoes for traveling:

Any Dr. Scholl’s tennis shoes are awesome!! Make sure you size up because they run small, but the padding in these is so perfect. They are up there with Asics and Brooks in my opinion, while looking more like an outfit shoe than just a gym shoe.

I put more tips in this video I made. In the video, I show you how to pack your roller bag in a way that you can see all of your clothes, and I show you some more handy tips.

Last but not least, this inflatable neck pillow was a lifesaver on the airplane!

I couldn’t find this exact one online. I’m not sure where Alan bought it, but they sell similar ones on Amazon. We had the overnight flight from D.C. to London, and this thing was a life saver for me!!

I hope you get to take your trip and have a wonderful time!

There are few things more exciting than embarking on a new adventure. I hope these tips will help you pack and make your time in Europe, or wherever you are going, even better.

The post How to Pack Light for Europe Using Only Carry-On Bags appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Before reading this article, I had never thought of it. I had actually never heard of “empty leg flights.” Today, I have a guest post to tell us all about this alternative way of travel. I hope you learn as much as I did!

***********

Flying is not as romantic and comfortable as it was back in the fifties and sixties when adventurous men and women not only dressed for the occasion, but even those in economy class they had plenty of room to stretch their legs while stewardesses (now called flight attendants) doted on them with fine wines and only the best, well prepared in-flight food (even steaks and lobster tails).

These days, flying commercially is more like being stuffed into a sardine can and the lid being sealed shut. No one takes pride in their wardrobe, and the food is as close to inedible as possible. In fact, I don’t even eat the meals served on commercial long-haul flights that can last upwards of twelve hours or so. I bring my own food.

But what can you do to make flying fun again, comfortable, and even luxurious for not a lot of money?

The answer is the empty-leg flight on a private jet. So then, the obvious question is how to find empty-leg flights that are relatively inexpensive?

According to a recent travel article by The Points Guy, flying private is on almost every globe-trotting traveler’s bucket list. There’s a good reason for this. Besides having the luxury of an entire plane to yourself, flying private also comes with a certain level of convenience that’s impossible when it comes to commercial cattle car airliners. You fly according to your own schedule. You don’t need to be bothered by security or boarding groups, or overhead luggage bins that are filled even before you board the plane.

If you’ve done even some basic Google searching for the most inexpensive way to attain the experience of flying a private jet, you might have come across the term, “empty leg.” It turns out, empty-leg flights are an excellent way to get yourself a highly discounted private jet charter. But, with empty-leg flights, your travel plans require flexibility (if you’re single and self-employed this is a no-brainer). There are other key details you need to know about empty legs flights. Here are just a few of them.   

Defining an Empty Leg Flight

As the term “empty” suggests, these are private charters that have already been scheduled to fly, but there are no passengers, usually due to cancelations. But the plane still needs to fly since it requires heading to a location where another charter is waiting. Empty leg flights are sometimes referred to as “ferry flights,” “repositioning legs,” and “dead-heads.” Says one charter jet company, an amazing 30 to 50 percent of all private jet charters often fly empty.  

This means you can get an empty-leg flight for a 75 percent discount over the normal charter price. And get this: some private jet membership programs offer super highly discounted flights or complimentary access to empty-leg flights. Talk about flying the friendly skies in style and on the cheap.

But because charter flights are expensive to operate, they naturally attempt to avoid empty-leg flights to begin with. This is why they’re not made available until the last minute. Routes can also be limited since there’s little way of predicting availability. Again, if you’re a free-spirit, and flexible, this shouldn’t pose a problem for you.

Downsides of Empty Leg Flights

With the good comes the bad. That said, there are two major downsides of booking empty leg flights. The first is that the flight can be canceled on a whim due to the jet suddenly getting booked at full charter price or a mechanical issue forcing the private jet to be grounded for the time being. 

Cancellations are an unfortunate reality of empty-leg flights, and like commercial airliners, private jet operators are not responsible for getting you to your desired destination.

Secondly, empty-leg flights are not round-trip flights. They are almost always one way. This means you need to find your way back home, that is, you wish to return anytime soon.

How Empty leg Flights Differ from Traditional Charters

Empty-leg flights can be similar to traditional charters in that you’ll only need to arrive at the airport a few minutes prior to takeoff. But keep in mind that empty legs schedules are stricter, which means there’s very little flexibility in delaying the flight because you’re stuck in traffic. On a good note, unless you’ve paid for just one seat, you will likely enjoy the entire jet.  

While this sounds like heaven above the clouds, note that there will be either limited catering or no catering on board. But snacks, basic alcoholic beverages, and soft drinks are usually available. Just like regular charters, empty-leg flights always list the model and type of aircraft you’ll be flying.

But again, empty-leg flights aren’t guaranteed to fly and therefore can be canceled at any moment. It’s best to have a backup option or be entirely prepared to cancel your trip. Again, flexibility is key when it comes to empty-leg travel and flying in a private jet on the cheap.  

How to Go About Booking an Empty Leg Flight

Now for the part you’ve been anxiously waiting for. How do you go about booking an empty-leg flight? While not many private charter companies advertise them, almost all offer empty leg deals. This only makes sense since getting some money for flying is better than getting nothing at all should a client cancel for one reason or another.    

Also, you can find brokers who actively advertise other private charter’s empty-leg flights. These businesses act as a sort of middleman, akin to online travel agencies like Priceline and Expedia. But like flying commercially, you are said to be better off booking your flight directly.    

You can search for empty-leg flights right on your smartphone or laptop via numerous charter and travel companies. You might even ask your preferred travel agent to do the research for you if you don’t mind spending a few bucks. Your agent will likely allow you to select your preferred departure airport, and she will alert you when a deal is made available. So always have your bag packed and ready to go.  

Empty Leg flights usually mean the entire aircraft is at your disposal. But in some cases, you can book just one seat, which means you’ll get even more of a discount. Again, be prepared for the flight to be canceled.

Empty-leg flights are an excellent way to fly the friendly skies, but you must be flexible and on top of what planes are flying and which are grounded. Bon voyage.

The post Flying a Private Jet is Not as Hard or as Expensive as You Think appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco

Almost two weeks ago, I set out with my four boys to fly from California to Georgia for Christmas.

We managed to arrive in one piece, with all of our luggage, but that was not the miracle.

Or maybe that was also a miracle. ha!

As I shepherded the four of them, plus myself, our five back-packs, and countless electronic gadgets through the security machines, we followed the rules very nicely, and I counted the heads of my children 300 times.

“Is this medicine 3mL?” the agent asked me, referring to my son’s seizure medication.

“Oh, I have no idea, but he has to have it.” (Don’t mess with Mama.)

“Yes, of course,” he replied.

Liquids and laptops have to go into separate security bins for the people to screen, so we segregated out all of my things.

“I’m flying alone with these four boys,” I made sure the agent knew.

For this to work, I needed a little extra assistance.

“Oh. Okay,” then he turned to the metal detector lines next to us, and he said, “Hold the lines.” The other passengers stepped back while they ushered my ducklings and I through the metal detectors, as a solid group. I was thrilled! I have never gotten through airport security so quickly!

The boys all grabbed their things, I grabbed my things, and we were on our way.

We only had to wait about 30 minutes at our gate before boarding began. JD and Daniel were happy to stand and look at the planes out the window. Caleb and Joshua were sitting in chairs, completely absorbed in their electronic devices. I chatted a bit with other folks near the windows.

The boarding agent called for all passengers who “need extra time or assistance in boarding.”

As soon as I heard it, I wasted no time whatsoever.   I pulled JD and Daniel down from their window ledge, and said, “Time to go, boys!”

They jumped up, zipped their packs, and followed me.

I rushed my 4 little ducklings along, and as I approached the boarding area, there was the usual multiple clumps of people waiting for their turn. I looked at the young man standing in the front of said line. I didn’t want to appear rude by just shoving my way in front of him.

“Are you one of the people needing the extra help?” I asked him.

He chuckled, “No, no.”

“Oh. Well, I sure am! C’mon, boys!” I said as I stepped in front of him, followed by my adorable straight line of four little fellas.

In fact, as I was just about to hand our five tickets to the ticket lady, JD excitedly ran straight on ahead, right past the ticket counter, right past me, and right on down the jetway….or whatever you call that hallway thing that leads to the airplane.

Yikes! I quickly ran over, scooped him up, and apologetically went back to the ticket lady.

“I’m so sorry,” I said. “We’re with the needing the extra help group.”

She nodded. “Five?”

“Yes.”

“Go ahead.”

“Thank you!!”

No sooner than we had gotten ourselves arranged in our seats, I had a terrible. horrifying. realization.

I dug through my book bag, looking for my laptop, but wait. Where was my laptop?

Uh-oh….in the bin…beside…the medicines…and JD’s sippy cup. I did a quick check. Yes, all of those things were missing, and I knew exactly where I had left them. At security.

By the way, that’s not the kind of medication you can just quit cold turkey. There’d be headaches to suffer from that sort of thing.

Nooooooo! So I did what I always do when I have a problem.

That’s right. I called Alan. Poor Alan. He was already on the highway headed home. He said that I should ask the crew if they could help me retrieve all that stuff before we took off.

Yes, I should think of these things on my own, but no, it will never happen. I am not the person you want around in an emergency.

I flagged down the flight attendant. I told her what had happened as quickly as I could.

Raquel was her name, and she is one of my new favorite people. It was a Christmas miracle, I tell you.

“Okay! I’ll tell them we have to have this medication before we take off, or he will have a seizure on the plane!!” Raquel said.

She rushed off. I continued helping JD and Daniel get settled. I said a prayer or two, and I decided not to fret. No need. Fretting cannot help. Only Providence, Raquel, and the TSA could help us now.

And just like that, she was back, carrying all of it!

The Macbook, the meds, and the sippy cup, all present and accounted for!

Pure gratitude and elation! I was so relieved! I thanked her profusely. I handed her a wad of cash as I deplaned in Georgia, I wrote Delta airlines and told them that Raquel deserves a promotion and a pay raise.

Thank you, Heavenly Father, and thank you, Raquel!

*******The Christmas Crash**********

My parents were waiting at the airport to pick us up, and I don’t know what I would have done without them. The next day my persistent, chronic, manageable level of hip pain morphed into a roaring, uncontrollable monster, and the rest of Christmas vacation has been a blur for me. I do not know what is wrong with my hip. I did get a steroid shot. I thought, at the very least, it will help my bursitis, and it did help for a few days.

But then I took a four-hour car trip, and the problem is back. I can’t sit down but for a few minutes, lying in bed at night is the worst, stairs are torture, but walking around doesn’t bother me at all.

I will be returning to California with a newly heightened resolve to solve my hip problem, but it is also one of those things that I will have to trust God for. Thankfully, I am in good hands. The Lord cares about our pain.

Hebrews 4:15

15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

The post The Christmas Miracle, Followed by My Great Christmas Crash appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

ah….airports

I love visiting my family. I love going to the beach. I love seeing my people! Why does Alabama have to be so incredibly far from California? If I want to go there, I really do HAVE to fly.

I only have to do it 4 more times. 1 round trip this summer and 1 round trip this Christmas. Then hopefully, I will never have to do it again.

Why? Why don’t I like taking a 5-6 hour flight? Well, let me tell ya.

Experience. When I was 21, I loved swimming IN the ocean, right in the Gulf of Mexico. I’d go in over my head. I don’t do that now either: I know too much, I’ve been stung by a jellyfish, and yes, I AM afraid of sharks. Experience.

So here you go. Here are my experiences with flying with my children, in case anyone needs reminding–or if you need flight tips–I do consider myself the flying with babies and toddlers expert. There I said it. I am an expert at SOMETHING.

The Flight of Four Children

A God We Can Depend On: the New Year’s Eve Flight

Breastfeeding, Strangers, and Airplanes  (That was one of my most popular posts ever. That post is read around the world every week. Posts are a funny thing. The ones I think will be popular are NOT, and the other ones are, and I have no idea how to figure it out.)

The post The Reason I Don’t Want to Fly to Alabama appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

If you’re hoping for another funny story about flying with all our boys, you are sort of in luck. 😉 This photo is us waiting at baggage claim at 11:30 pm, filing claims for lost luggage–on New Year’s Eve. Happy New Year to us! Hang with me, this is a long one…

Upon our arrival to the South, we realized we were missing a bag. We reported it, and 10 days later, that bag was still missing. That’s unusual. Airlines are usually pretty good at getting your suitcases to you. If you live close enough, they’ll even drive it to your house.

Let me tell you, after spending 5+hours on an airplane with your children, the very last thing you want to do is spend an extra hour and a half more in the air port upon arriving. At least in Atlanta we had family there helping us. As we waited there for our suitcases to get on the belt, I spotted an employee standing with a BIG empty cart. Not like the little ones that hold two suitcases. This was like the kind you get at hotels.  I said, “Oh, man, that is what we need.”

“You want it?” he asked.

“How do you get one of those??”

“Oh, I just put your bags on here for you and take them to your car, and you can just tip me.”

What!!  How had we not known about this??!! Happiest moment! Oh, it is the little things!!!

“Oh my goodness. Yes!! We have 15 bags!!!”

Fast forward to the return trip. It was a LATE night trip.

By the time we landed in San Francisco on NYE, we had to wake our children up, and do the major production that we do to complete the miracle of flight: deplane. I can’t even begin to explain why this is hard, so let’s just move on.

We got out. It took us all 30 minutes to use the bathrooms. We got almost to baggage claim, when all our talk about the coughing, influenza kid that we were sitting in front of on the plane, made us sure that we should stop and wash the boys’ hands again.  Was that really what happened, Alan? I don’t remember. It was 11pm. We were barely functioning. I definitely remember that we made someone rewash their hands. I just am not completely sure why, but there went another good 10 minutes for some reason.

We walked across the airport the wrong direction, to realize our luggage was a mile in the opposite direction. Gates were going down, employees were leaving, and we hadn’t even picked up our suitcases yet: 7 of them, plus 2 car seats.

It didn’t take long for us to realize that, yet again, another duffel bag did not make it. At least this time it was the baby’s suitcase, rather than the ELECTRONICS suitcase that went missing the first time. Sorry ya’ll, but I will be flying with expensive electronic equipment again never.

We have now ordered a new video baby monitor. We figured we’d never see that suitcase again, and it could also help me watch Caleb at night for seizures. (That’s another story for tomorrow’s blog…)

It took 20 minutes to get the claim written for the second bag and another half hour to write the claim for the still missing 1st bag, which had apparently never actually been reported. Thank you, Atlanta.

Ok. I think You should know that I probably exaggerate time frames because by 11:20 or so we had finally made it outside, and there were no shuttle buses at all. I called the hotel. We were in the wrong place……back to hiking around with our 15 suitcases.

No really. 7 large. 2 car seats. 8 carry-ons, a double stroller, and a baby.

We spotted what looked like our shuttle and dashed to it in relief.

“No, I don’t go to that hotel. Actually I go to blahablahblah….” the driver informed us. Nooooooo!

So we kept hiking and looking hiking and looking…there!  We see it! It’s coming!!  And it zoooooomed right past us. It’s almost midnight. That was the last run of the night, and Dude didn’t even stop.

We had made it through an entire day of traveling. We had converted to central time, so for us it was actually almost 2am. 2.a.m.

The baby didn’t cry. Daniel didn’t melt down. The boys were fine.

I was not. This is the point where I got reeeeeeal whiny. Noooooooooo!

Alan got on the phone with the hotel, and we got the driver back. Alan managed to get me on the shuttle without me chewing out the driver, and that was an accomplishment in itself.

At check in, they informed us that our Silver Club Level (like frequent flyer miles for hotels…Thank you, Cross Country Road trip), entitles us to FREE breakfast on the 14th floor. Yes!

The boys and I headed to the hotel room, and Alan headed to our minivan. There was a moment where I was afraid that I actually rang in 2015 in my hotel room with the bellhop, while Alan was still downstairs getting the ‘pack and play’ out of our van. Then I realized the hotel room clock was just fast, so I am so happy to report that at 12 am Pacific time, I kissed all four of my children and my husband. (And just to be clear, I did not kiss the bellhop.) 🙂

This will be a wonderful year. 🙂 I have HIGH hopes.

Let me tell you what happened today:

-JD woke me up at 1am. We have tried everything. Literally everything, so let’s not discuss this any further.

-Daniel woke me up at 5am and said, “My stomach hurts. I need some milk.”

“Daniel, if your stomach hurts, you don’t need milk. You can have water, and maybe you need to pee.”

“No me go pee. Me need water.”

“Okay. Here you can have mine.” Daniel climbed into our bed, and I rolled over to Alan and said, “I think Daniel is about to throw up.” People who guzzle water and say their stomach hurts always throw up.

Somehow Daniel managed to wait until 8am to begin the barfing.

We had some rough moments today, and I might have sort of lost it at one point, but I never did apologize to the children. We’ll come back to that later.

Early on, the phone rang. “Are you missing a suitcase?”

I felt like that man on the milk commercial, you know the Aaron Burr expert. His mouth was full of cookies, and the radio contest calls with an Aaron Burr question, but he can’t answer because he has no milk!!?? Remember???  So funny.

Anyway. I had JD holding one leg and screaming, and Daniel crying to watch “Paws Patrols” on the other leg. This was before Daniel barfed big time and I quarantined him in his room. I could barely make out the words on the other end of the phone, but I got the gist.

Don’t worry. I managed to speak.

“YES!!  YES!!!  We do! We did!”
“Can you describe the contents of the bag?”

“Oh ho yeah buddy. Hundreds of dollars worth of video equipment and a baby blanket!!!!”

dingdingding

The suitcase was found in Atlanta, 16 days after our flight. Isn’t that something?

“This is great!!! Thank you!!!”

I called Alan around 3pm. After a day of cleaning up puke and teaching school, I needed this to be an early day. Thankfully, Alan is in a much less stressful place right now than last semester, so he was able to be home early today.

I dashed off to the beach. First, I did such a poor job of parallel parking that I finally gave up and paid the $1.50 to park. Boo. My walk was nice, but kind of ho hum. Have I become spoiled??? I prayed about my problems, especially about the way I panic, or “freak out” too easily.

God told me I need to learn to depend on him more. Rather than panic, take a deep breath and pray about the problem.

Now, just in case anyone is new here: I don’t mean the audible voice of God, just that God speaks to my heart, my spirit if you will. Christianity is not a religion. It’s a relationship. It’s about having a relationship with God.

I got back to my van. I took my jacket off. I was hot. I cleaned out the pockets back into my purse. That’s when I realized that my identification was missing!!! What! I wanted to cry.

I retraced my steps back to the beach. I had walked a looooong way. I was so furious with myself for having put that ID card in my pocket and then not knowing it had fallen out. I looked and looked. I panicked a little. I prayed and prayed and looked and looked, but there was no sign of it.

I was very shaken. I drove home disappointed in myself, and disappointed in God. Why hadn’t he answered my prayer? Then I remembered about how I’d panicked and lost it with the children when they were all four hammering me at once this morning with their needs. I had never gone back and apologized, and I do believe that sin hinders our prayers. The Bible has a lot to say about reconciling with those that you have offended.

I prayed that my ID would fall into the right hands. Maybe I would still get it back.

I knew God was saying, “I got you back your suitcases. Why can’t you calm down and trust me with your ID?”

I went home, told Alan my problem, and walked straight over to the boys. I told all three that had seen my melt down from the morning, “I am so sorry. All four of you needed me at once, and it was just too much for me to handle, and I lost it. I am so sorry. You know that is not how I want to be. Please forgive me. Next time I start to raise my voice, I want you to touch my arm and tell me, ‘Mom, you’re starting to yell.'”

They all nodded and jumped to other topics. I walked straight to the kitchen to clear things off for pizza. I kept praying that the ID would fall into the right hands. The doorbell rang. We figured it was the pizza.

Nope.

It was the police. “Someone found your ID on the beach. Here you go.”

Excited doesn’t begin to describe it.  Thank you, God. We have a God we can depend on, and thank you to the kind stranger who handed my ID into the police. SUPER thank you! And thank you to the police man, who drove that card straight to my house. He arrived less than 10 minutes after I did.

So now you see why I am feeling unusually optimistic about this year, even if I do spend tomorrow cleaning up puke…hope I don’t end up hating myself for eating all those Christmas clearance cookies….

The post A God We Can Depend On appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

You know those days where you just feel like…….BLEH. I’m good. I’m even really excited about moving into my new house on Friday, BUT…….bleh. Today I am reminded of the fragility of life, the reality of the military life, and well, my eye itches really badly. I’m allergic to weeds. The West coast grows a lot of weeds.

Here’s the super condensed version of what happened on the journey out here.

1. If you have two children under four, you do not need to travel with a stroller. You need to travel with a DOUBLE stroller. I don’t care if your husband tells you that it won’t fit in the van. It will fit. You will make it fit. He will make it fit. This will never happen again.

Meanwhile, Daniel was super cute walking at the pace of a 100 year old turtle, looking at every single thing in the airport, while simultaneously picking his nose and saving the boogers as souvenirs.

2. Moving cross-country: just don’t do it. Too much work.

3. My mom traveling with me was truly a life-saver. I am high strung, and she was more calm. I needed that. Her calmness was essential. Thank you, Mom.

4. The actual flying part was easy. On the 5 hour flight from Atlanta to LA, we sat behind a family of four little girls. All eight kiddos were model travelers. I only had one minor heart attack, when the mom in front of us turned and asked me if she could give all of my boys Reese’s Peanut Butter cups. Phew! At least she asked, and none of her little girls touched Joshua or John David, so we were able to finish out the day without a trip to the Emergency Room.

I had to laugh at myself, going to great lengths to make sure no peanut products were served by the airline, while the lady in front of me was handing out Reese’s. You know, you just can’t control the world. There had been a previous flight, a few years ago, where Joshua had broken into hives from the presence of peanut on the plane, but this time we were free of incident!

5. Poor Caleb. Upon arriving, Alan asked Caleb, “How was the flight?” Caleb answered, “Good. I mean, not really. There was this kid that sat behind me that kept kicking my seat for the whole flight.” Then Caleb sighed and mumbled, “But there was just nothing I could do. She was just like a 5-year-old little kid that didn’t know any better,” and he shook his head.

I had no idea any of that was going on, and Caleb was sitting right beside me.

6. The military reimbursed us for these tickets, as this was a military move, not a vacation. Therefore, I went ahead and purchased JD his own seat and brought along his car seat. Traveling with your baby’s car seat is WONDERFUL. It wasn’t for safety reasons. I wasn’t all that worried about his safety. The great thing about the car seat was that it provided him a place to sleep!!! I was able to sit and read. Who would have ever thought?

7. The hard part was not the flying. The hard part was navigating through the airport, check-in, baggage claim, and to the rental car area with 7 suitcases, 4 children, a stroller, and a car seat. THAT was almost impossible. Going through security was rough too. I kept my cool all day long…….until baggage claim. When Caleb threw his little body on the moving suitcase belt, that was when I suddenly became completely unglued. I snatched Caleb off of that luggage belt and became April-in-panic for the rest of the day.

Mom told me that a lady came up to her, after I pulled Caleb off the belt, and said, “I want you to know, he just lived out one of my life-long dreams!!”

My state of panic became even worse when we were crossing the street to get to the rental car place, and all of the suitcases on my suitcase cart fell off into the road. It sounds like a little thing, but by this point I had been up since 5 am, flying with four little boys, and ALL little things were great big things.

8. I waited in the Avis line for what felt like an hour. Meanwhile, I could hear Daniel having a melt down over by the snack machines. My mom was trying to get them all a reward for being such great flyers, but of course Caleb and Dan both wanted the last bag of fruit snacks in the machine.

I finally got my turn at the counter, and the Avis lady said, “I see no reservation in here for you.”

No, I didn’t freak out. I was already in a freaked out state anyway. I very quickly said, “Okay. So do you have a minivan available for renting?”

“No, but we have seven passenger SUVs.”

“Available right now?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll take it. Here’s my credit card.”

After 20 more minutes of snack machine problems, we finally went upstairs and got our SUV. Only I forgot that I had also reserved a car seat for Dan. That’s when I became almost hysterical. Daniel is tiny!! He HAS to have a car seat!! I turned to my mom and asked her to go see if she could be super assertive (not really her thing) and get one for us from Avis, without waiting in that killer-slow line.

Mom did us proud. She did not wait in line. She went up to the counter and said, “We HAVE to have a car seat.”

“What agent helped you?”

“I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. We just need a car seat.”
“Is it in your rental agreement?”

“No, but we need one. My daughter is out there, and she doesn’t have a car seat, and she’s freaking out. You gotta give me a car seat.”

Mom was back in 5 minutes with a car seat. I was so happy to see her and that seat that I started to cry.

9. Well, of course we got lost. We made the 1 hour 20 minute trip from airport to hotel in a little less than 2 hours…I wanted to melt into a puddle in the floor. Instead, I climbed into bed, and we let Alan take the boys for a while.

The boys are so excited to be here–so excited. I’d like to say thank you again to my mom. I certainly could not have done this alone!!

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