Across the Pond

From: Tracy Adcock <tracyadcock@gmail.com>

Date: July 3, 2010 8:03:06 AM GMT+08:00

To: d1musicjr@gmail.com

Subject: Across the Pond

I'm not sure I can write anything coherent right now, but we made it to London! Well, the Heathrow Airport, anyway. And, once again, we are thankful for unexpected blessings.

When we were booking our airline tickets we learned that we could save about $150 per ticket by driving to Dallas instead of flying from Little Rock, so we decided to figure out how to make that happen. It didn't take long, because our good friends Dave and Michelle Younkman agreed to drive to Dallas together on July 20 to pick us up and drive us and our car home. We were even MORE thankful for that arrangement when we checked in at the DFW airport. The flights from Little Rock to Dallas were cancelled!  If we had planned to fly, we would have had to make a plan IN THE MOMENT with only minutes to spare. Needless to say, we were very thankful to avoid that stress!

Leaving home yesterday was a strange emotional experience. Knowing that we were leaving and when we returned, life would not be at all like the life we left.  Adding Hayden to our family will be fun and rewarding, I'm sure. But for a while, it will starkly contrast how "easy" our life is now with our kids all being teenagers (almost). Trying to imagine what life will be like when we get home is fun, an scary from a selfish prospective.

Our flight from Dallas to London was fairly uneventful. It is fun to tell people in conversation why we are traveling and show them Hayden's picture. Everyone is excited with us and comments on how beautiful Hayden is.

We had a couple of moments worthy of remembering. Darrell and I got up to go to the bathroom (at the same time so we didn't have to disturb the man sitting in the aisle seat any more than necessary).  I came out and waited while Darrell went in. Not long after he got in there we hit some pretty intense turbulence and he accidentally hit the "call attendant" button. So, I'm standing outside the restroom holding on for dear life, after telling a couple of attendants why I was not returning to my seat right away, when one of them starts banging on the bathroom door. While Darrell was in there. He told me that whoever was in there had called for an attendant and wondered if I knew if the man was ok. So, he's BEATING on the door YELLING, "Are you okay, Sir? Are you okay?" And I was thinking (knowing) that if he was okay before, he wasn't now, thinking this guy was going to barge right in on him! Darrell said if the attendant came in he was going to calmly ask for a gin and tonic! HA! HA! As if that was the reason he hit the call button in the first place! HA! HA!  We laughed until we cried!

The other moment wasn't as funny, maybe, but had the potential to be! I have known that I tend to panic when in confined spaces for too long, and had even mentioned numerous times that I was not looking forward to this part of the trip. With all the craziness getting ready to go and then the aforementioned emotional introspection, I had honestly forgotten to be worried about the long flights. Well, I remembered about 6 1/2 hours into the 9 hour flight to London. I had fallen asleep, quite comfortably I should add, with my inflatable neck pillow around my neck, the little headrest "wings" pulled out, my headphones in to block out crying baby noise, Parker's chair in front of me reclined, and Darrell on one side asleep and a nice stranger on the other side asleep. I woke up feeling pretty rested and seeing daylight, assumed we were near landing. When I checked and found that we still have 2 1/2 hours left, this involuntary feeling of panic started to rise in me.  I got up and walked around, which helped for a little bit, but when I sat down the feeling of panic came on even stronger. There was a couple of minutes when I was thinking, "I cannot do this! This is the SHORTEST flight of our entire trip and I am freaking out! I don't know how I'm going to get home, but I must get there right away because there is NO WAY I can complete this trip." The only thing scarier than those feelings is the realization that there is no way out. Of the plane or the trip. Thankfully, Darrell woke up and took turns fanning ourselves. Then I started watching a movie, fell sound asleep again and woke up just in time to get my stuff together. God is so gracious!  I plan to take some Benedryl (sleep aid) to make sure I sleep through a sufficient part of the next flight. If that doesn't work, Darrell and the kids will likely their own funny stories to tell.

We didn't get to to into London because our plane was delayed leaving Dallas, leaving us just short of enough time to get to Windsor Palace, get lunch, and get back here. So, right now McKenna is sound asleep with her feet up in her seat, Parker is asleep bent over in half, Logan is walking around doing fine, and I've fallen asleep at the keyboard a couple of times. So, this must be the jetlag I've heard so much about.

Most of all, we are having fun together and anticipating that one moment when we meet Hayden face-to-face.

Tracy Adcock

follow our trip to china to bring Hayden home...

theAdcockfamily.blogspot.com