Testing Patience

Last week we went on vacation to Spain. We have done this before with the kids so we expected kind of the same for the plane trip over there. We were sadly mistaken. We left Miami International Airport at 8:30pm Sunday night and we did not get to John's grandma's house in Spain until 2:30am Tuesday morning. Now, it is not supposed to take that long or else we would probably never go. We had a good flight to Madrid then our connector was a little delayed. We got on our connector and we were in the air for about 1 hour when the landing gear went down and we started the decent to land. Suddenly the pilot sped up and went back into the air. Now, my heart is in my throat and who knows what is in my pants, I think we are being hijacked or who knows what. The pilot comes on the speaker finally saying the fog is too heavy and he can not land. He is going to make a second attempt and then he will have to go to a different airport. He circles for a while and then tries again. No Luck!! Now, here is where the PATIENCE starts to come into play. Instead of going to an airport close to where we were supposed to go, we go all the way back to Madrid. Then when we land we are made aware that we are not in the US anymore. Instead of hanging around the aiport for the next flight, we are told that we will go to baggage and collect our luggage where we will board a bus to drive to Asturias (the airport we were trying to fly to). We are told that it is a 5 hour max bus ride. En route, we are made aware that it is far longer than 5 hours. The bus makes two stops, in the middle of a city and then at the train station, before ever going to the airport. When we left Madrid there were 2 buses full of people, when we got to the airport (where everyone was supposed to be going) there was at a maximum of 15 people and 8 of them were us. Only in Spain!. So after a 9 hour plane ride to Madrid and then about another 3 hour plane ride above Spain going nowhere, a 7 1/2 hour bus ride, and a 45 minute car ride we finally make it to our destination. This was a true test of Patience, I did lose it on the bus when we started making alternate stops, I was yelling, but of course it was in English so no one understood me. The kids though, were a Grace from Above, because they were so good. I Thank God everyday for what he has blessed me with. In the end, I know it was all worth it, we had a great time with the family, but you better believe that I am going to try to get some of our money back. Check back on my blog in a few days I will actually post pics of Spain.