Coming to America

We have been planning this trip to the States for so long that I can't really believe it is here. We got the kids up at three in the morning (they were actually pretty excited for the hour) and went to the airport. I was flying alone with the kids as Carl was not leaving til the next day.

The flight from Bahrain to Qatar went really well and then we had a short layover. I was really happy at the airport when little Carl found there was a kids area and they entertained themselves most of the time there. Our flight was at 10:45 and boarding was supposed to be at 10:00. Arround 9:30 I thought it would be a good idea to get in line and get through early. When I got to the gate I was surprised to see huge lines. First we had to get into a line to get our passports checked, then get into another line to pick up checked passports then to go through a security check and last to get our tickets checked before boarding the flight. With three kids who are very active this was a hectic process. Once I gave my tickets I was informed that I could not take Madisons carseat on the plane even though they had let me have it on the previous flight. With having all three kids I was depending on her being strapped in so as not to be running after her during the 14 hour flight. As sad as it sounds as I argued with the attendent and she insisted I could not have it I had to hold back tears of frustration.

The flight started out as usual, when we got to our seats of course there was a whole family sitting where the girls and I were supposed to be. I then had to be the shrew and insist they move seats rather than I taking theirs (which is what they were insisiting on) since carl was sitting accross the isle from the seats we were supposed to be in and I wanted to be close to him. Once we were in the air the kids were loving the on demand (madison refuses to wear headphones so she was watching with no sound).

For the first half of the flight things were going really well, excepting Madison running all over and taking off her seat belt every two minutes. The flight attendants were irritated by this but I was not apoligetic since it was their decision not to have her seat on the plane. After 9 hours and a few times closing her eyes she finally fell asleep out of sheer exhaustion. Ha-Na had a great time and then started saying her stomach was not feeling well, my anxiety shot through the roof. Ha-Na is our puker, and I imediately began grasping at ways to waylay what was to happen. After sipping some water she closed her eyes and I thought all was well. With the two girls asleep I looked accross the isle at Carl and saw that he too had drifted off. I decided I would give them a few minutes and then try to get some sleep myself since I had been up more than 24 hours. Just as I was gettting comfortable Ha-Na opens her eyes and begins to puke. Not just a little urp but full on puking over and over. All I could do was put my hand in front of her to guide the puke to stay on her and not all over the seat since she is washable and the seat was to be with us the rest of the flight. We then cleaned her up and changed clothes. She felt a little better but now she was up so I also was required to be awake. Madison soon woke up and decided that she definately was not supposed to be in her seat, most especially did not need a seatbelt on and that if she were required to stay in the seat the only acceptable position was her legs hanging out in the isle. Of course thirty minutes before landing the kids all fell fast asleep again and when it was time to leave the plane had no intention of using their own legs. I then carried our bags on one arm, had Madison draped over the other and had a childs hand in each of mine. And entered America in Washington DC.

It took an hour and a half to get our luggage and then we went out to meet the shuttle to the hotel. I must prefice this with the following: I was now going on being awake for 30 hours, frazzled from above experiences and ok, I have to admit I am not the most observent person in the best of situations. I see a shuttle come up that I thought read Dulles Embassy Suites. I get on the shuttle happy to be finally coming to the end of the day and looking forward to lying down on a bed and letting the kids go crazy in the hotel room. The first thing that I noticed was that there were a lot of people on the shuttle with airport ID. Then after 20 minutes we entered a large parking area. As I reaad the signs I see that we are in the Dulles Employee Parking lot. What was really written on the shuttle was "Dulles Employee Shuttle." I had to do the walk of shame to the front of the shuttle and explain to the driver my mistake and let him know that we would be returning to the airport with him. I could not tell whether he was ammused or annoyed and frankly at that moment I did not have the energy to care. After at least 30 minutes of stopping at every letter in the parking lot we were on our way back to the airport. Another 20 minute drive we get off, wait at least 30 minutes and finally we get onto the right shuttle. (I made sure to tell Carl which shuttle we were looking for so that he would help me from making that mistake again.) We got to the hotel, to the room, ordered pizza and then we all four collapsed into bed.

At 3:00 am all three kids come into my room to annouce that it is morning and they are awake. I do understand that in Bahrain time it was 10:00am so it was understandable but in my exhaustion I did not have the patience to be considerate of this. I ordered them all back to bed and then was able to sleep till about 4:30am at which point my body decided it too was awake. I hung out with the kids til breakfast and then took them swimming in the pool. We came back to the room and I was determined to keep the kids and myself awake so that we could get used to the time as quickly as possible. Carl was to arrive that evening and I thought I should keep them up til then. The kids wanted to watch tv and were doing so till about four when Madison came in and wanted to be in bed with me and watch me play computer games (this was my attempt at keeping myself awake)within minutes she was out and no ammount of tickling and nudging would get even an eye flicker out of her. Carl then came in and asked if he could watch me play my game, he also informed me that Ha-Na had fallen asleep watching tv. Carl lasted another 20 minutes and he too was lost to fairy dust and dreams. I was able to stay awake til Carl arrived at seven and we moved the kids to their bed and then gladly allowed ourselves to fall asleep.

The kids again woke up at three in the morning and this time excited to see daddy would not return to bed. We finally admited there was no use to holding onto the belief that we could ink out a bit more shut eye and got up to start packing. We got the bags ready packed into the car and as soon as breakfast was available we ate and set out on our way to Charleston.......