On Wednesday morning, Reagan was being a real silly girl. Seth captured one of her poses of cuteness.
Airport insanety
We took turns walking around to stretch our legs during our four hours of waiting. During that time we met some really nice people and experienced two Mag6.0 quakes. These quakes knocked out the internet, but after our three hours of waiting we tried checking Seth in again... it still didn't work! I asked him if he could have copied the reservation number down wrong, he pulls up the email and nope that is the reservation number, “ah.... Seth I hate asking this question but what is the day for your ticket” “it says Wednesday the….wait what is today?” “The 16th” “…it’s for the 23rd” “NO!!! NO!!! NO!! NO!! NO!! NO!!!!”
Instantly we started freaking out, every fear is now coming out in my mind. After a 20 seconds of panic we put on our survival caps. I instantly got on www.singaporair.com and Seth borrowed someones phone to see if he could switch his flight. On the website they were still listing the tickets for that flight, which means that there are still open seats! Whew! Seth found out on the phone call that there was 5 open seats still but they could not move his ticket over because it was to close to check-in. We had to make sure we bought one of those tickets before 5 others did.
I started praying “Jesus we just need one seat, please just one.” After about 45 minutes of panic, Seth saw a man tangling a credit card in front of a Singapore airlines ticket counter worker! "What the..?!" Seth jumped over to the counter faster than you can say "natural disaster!" He drenched that lady in a thick layer of Walker charm. It totally paid off because he turned to me and said "I got a ticket!" Praise God!!! And wait...it gets better...the open seat that Seth got was right next to me! Oh God is so, SO good!
Here Seth is inside security with his plane ticket. Who's excited?!
During our short flight (9hrs), I just kept looking over at Seth and thanking God that he was right there next to me. We watched movies and tried sleeping, but the turbulence reminded us so much of aftershocks that we could not fall asleep. We would later find out how bad our PTSD actually was.
When we landed in LA, we definitely got hit with some reverse culture shock right away. If you have spent any time in Japan, you know that their customer service is phenomenal. If you have spent any time in LAX, you know how unpleasant their TSA is. I might even go as far as saying that LAX’s customer service is the worst in the country. It made our leaving Japan even more unpleasant and Seth and I instantly became home sick (Japan). I reassured him that LAX is completely different. I said "Once we get to Albuquerque and see all of our family, we will feel back at home."
Seth in LAX with his first American beer in 12 months.
We celebrated America by having pizza and beer for lunch. Shortly after, we boarded our Southwest plane to Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Once we landed in Albuquerque, we were greeted by my dad as we walked off the plane! Since he is a Southwest pilot, he can get through security and even come down the planes boarding ramp. It was a great surprise seeing my dad before I even stepped off the plane.
On the other side of security we had the best welcome party. Sam, Mary, Janet, my brother Kyle and my nieces Emma and Dakota all showed up to greet us! It was so wonderful to be hugged by our family members on solid ground.
Our welcome committee
We went to bed that night so thankful that we were safe, but we also felt very sad. It was not the way we had imagined saying goodbye. Our good friends in Japan are always in our prayers as well as all of the Japanese.
~ Kate
April 6, 2011 at 8:55 AM
So glad you guys are safe. God definitely is good!