turned into four weeks due to the unexpected eruption of a volcano in Iceland. Eyjafjallajokull's plume of ash left northern Europe at its mercy, completely shutting down the air space for over a week. Like us, most of the UK was on Easter break, trying to get home just when the air space closed leaving tens of thousands of people stranded all over the world. People had a few choices: wait it out in an airport, spend extra time at the current location at their added expense or make their way home via bus, ferry, train, taxi, etc. For many this involved horrendous journeys homeward; for us this meant an unplanned week
in Augusta. Mentally, this took some adjusting as we were all packed and ready to return home. The kids and I had already been away from Dennis for three weeks which is a long time.The morning we were due to fly out Mom went with me to the Augusta airport to begin the process of finding a flight back home
for four people. I knew we would be joining the worldwide que of stranded travelers trying to find return flights home. It took two and a half hours for the patient and winsome Delta agent to find four empty seats. However this required an override confirmation from the management as the only seats were on business class which we did not pay for; this would be
on Delta's dime. She received the confirmation and we were booked on the first available flight from Augusta to Paris, Paris to Manchester, a week later. (maybe I'll wrote more on the 32 hour trip home)
When we say we are going to the United States people over here think 'holiday' but in reality other than the refreshment from seeing precious friends and family, it leaves us worn out because we pack the day from morning til night enjoying people, running errands and seeing dentist and doctors.
Dennis and I have wracked our brains trying to come up with a more relaxing way of doing it but short of not seeing people we can't think of a solution. The reason I go home is to see people so that option is out of the question.Having this unplanned week allowed us to do some more normal things in an unhurried way. We were able to do schoolwork in the mornings, Anna Catherine was able to shadow a pediatric PT friend of ours, as well as reconnect with the youth group, we got to have some relaxed evenings with Grammy and we even got to sit by the pool for two hours.
We had had a marvelous trip home celebrating my dad's 70th birthday, sweating it out in Atlanta Centennial Park with Shelley and the kids, visiting cousin Jess in the hospital, Julieanne getting to visit Katie in CT, goofing off in the mountains with the Willis family, catching up with Grammy and Buddy, a well as many meals with special friends. We loved worshipping at First Presbyterian for three Sundays though it was a bit tricky in the beginning. The girls said they felt like strangers in the church they had grown up in.
It takes a while for people to settle in as we come back completely off their radar and just enter their sphere. In the end, Julieanne went to a girl's soccer match and birthday party for her year group, AC went to High Life and weekly prayer breakfast while Nathan settled back in without skipping a beat.
It is an unsettling feeling to not 'belong' anywhere.
We don't really fit in in England even though we are well connected; at the end of the day, we are still different.
In Augusta, though people love us dearly, life has gone on without us. People are connected to one another through
the shared experiences while we have been away, they have grown and we have too. It is one of the realities of living away that we will address once we return. It gives us a taste of the longing to fully belong as we will someday in heaven where we will be truly 'home'. As was evidenced while we were there, we will do the relational work of reconnecting and plugging in but for now we have to slide in as best we can, relationally soak up all that we are afforded and then pack up to say good bye again.
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