I have always considered myself to be a woman of faith. In everything that I do, I put my hope into a higher power that I am living as I should and walking the path that has been laid out before me. I also believe that everything happens for a reason. So on the day that we were due to fly out Atlanta and we almost didn't make it, I must admit that my faith was shaken.
Ever since I found out that we were going to be moving to Georgia, I never questioned if this was the right place for us. I knew that if God had brought us to it, he would bring us through it. So we had planned and prepared to the tenth degree to make sure the entire moving process went as smoothly as possible. We were scheduled to fly out on December 28 on the 6:30 a.m. flight from Peoria to Atlanta where we would pick up our rental car and drive down to Hampton to meet our realtor at our new house. On the evening of December 27, we had all of our things packed back up into our bags from celebrating Christmas at home with our families in Georgia. Since our cars had been packed up in Peoria and were in the process of being shipped, my parents drove us from Decatur to our hotel in Peoria. We stopped by Clint's mom's house and said our goodbyes and picked up Sarabi and then we were off.
On the way to the airport, Clint asked the one question that we had slightly overlooked. Was there a special kennel that we needed to have for Sarabi? We had already visited our vet and gotten her some sleepy medicine and had him fill out all of the paperwork that we would need to show at the airport so that she could fly. I quickly called Delta, and told them about the kind of kennel that we currently had and asked if that would meet their requirements. To our relief, the nice lady on the phone said that since it was just a short regional flight (about an hour and twenty minutes) we wouldn't need to worry about the kennel requirements. What a relief we thought, but we had no idea how wrong we were.
We woke up at about 4:15 a.m on the 28th so that we could get ourselves and Sarabi ready for the trip. Our taxi driver met us downstairs in the lobby at 5:00 a.m. and we were off to the airport. Everything was going so smoothly until we walked up to the counter, and were greeted by the most unfriendly rep I have ever had to deal with. She quickly informed us that Sarabi's kennel did not meet the requirements to fly and we would not be allowed on the plane. We spent a good fifteen minutes arguing with her about the call that we had just made the night before, but she told us there was nothing she could do. We were stranded. No car. No flight. Totally stuck. So I did the first thing I could think. I hailed another taxi and asked him to drive me to the closest WalMart to see if we could find another kennel for Sarabi so that we could get on the plane.
To my luck, I had the best taxi driver in the Peoria area. I told him what was happening and soon it was like we were on a high-speed car chase. He drove as fast as he could to the WalMart in East Peoria and waited for me outside as I sprinted through the store like a crazy person to find a kennel that would actually work. When I got to the kennels there was one left. An extra large. Awesome. It was much bigger than what we needed, but at this point I honestly didn't care. I grabbed the kennel and ran back to the taxi. We flew through the dark streets of Peoria and arrived back at the airport at exactly 6:27 a.m. where we were told by the super nice and helpful Delta representative that we would not be able to board the place because everything was already closed up. We asked her when the next flight out of Peoria was only to be told that they were all full and she couldn't help us. The best she could do was to get on a flight out of Midway at 1:30 p.m. So with all our bags, a drugged up dog and a very angry husband, we rented a car and started the drive to Midway.
When we arrived, it was another nightmare. It had started to snow on our way up there and the car return center was a madhouse. But even through the midst of all our trouble, we did have some bright spots. A wonderful man who worked for national loaded Clint, Sarabi and I up into a minivan and drove us up to the terminal instead of making us lug our bags onto the bus. When we got to the check-in counter, another very nice man helped us get all of the paperwork done for Sarabi, get all our luggage checked-in and made sure that we were set to go. We ate some lunch and finally were able to board the plane. It was the longest hour of lives because we were so worried about how Sarabi was doing down below. But when we arrived in Atlanta, she was in one piece and as happy as a clam. We grabbed our rental car and took off for Hampton. We finally thought the day was turning in our favor, until we got to the house. Our realtor met us and started to do the final walk-through with us and broke the news to us that our heat was not working, nor was the stove and we had no hot water. "Did you turn the gas on?", she said.............no. No, we hadn't. No big deal though, we would just stay in a hotel for the night and call the gas company in the morning. At least we had all made it down safe and we finally had the keys to our new house. If we only knew then what we know now, we probably wouldn't have slept as peacefully that first night. Until next time!
xoxo,
Clint & Kate
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