Turkey Trip Blog 1 - God Knows

So our trip started with Josh and I meeting up with Khaleed and Christina at 7am Monday morning and driving to KCI airport to catch our first flight to Detroit. The car ride had lots of laughter and good conversation. This was going to be a festive trip. HA!

While looking at our flight schedule I noticed that we only had a hour in between each flight. I knew from personal experience that was going to be cutting boarding our next flight pretty close but getting our baggage to the next flight even closer. Still we forge on and hope for the best. Meanwhile, always carry a change of clothes and toiletries in your carryon.

We arrive in Detroit and meet up with Nathan Panke. As we are sitting at our gate the announcer comes on and informs us that due to air traffic, our flight to JFK will be delayed by one hour. That is the amount of time we had to make it to our international flight! Officially we were going to miss our flight. When we arrived at JFK, the first person we talked to said, "oh they have rebooked you for tomorrow for the same flight." Which was a direct flight from JFK to Istanbul. She then directed us to another gate to talk to someone there. As we walked I kept thinking back to all the flights I have taken and they never just give you one option so I just prayed that when we got to that gate, the person would offer us another route so that we could arrive on the day we were needing to arrive.

The girls decided to handle the problem so we approached a counter where every worker was mad and frustrated and hungry because it was their lunch time. It turns out there was another flight to Amsterdam and then on to Istanbul and would put us in 4 hours later than our ORIGINAL schedule! Christina and I were patient and joyful and by the end, all the ladies were laughing and telling us stories about their life. It was awesome! Then, just joking, but not really, I told the lady that since we made her day better she could just upgrade us to first class. HA! She printed off coupons for us to use at our actual gate to obtain our boarding passes. When we got to that gate, we checked in at the terminal and the lady looked at us and said, "In order to get you all on this flight, I had to upgrade your whole team." What!!! Praise God! We were ushered into business first class and served a 5 course meal, hot towels, mini travel kits, fresh squeezed juice, fully reclinable seats that let you lay down like in a bed, and a personal attendant. What an amazing God we serve!

We arrived in Turkey and got through customs with no trouble (well a little but that's another story of God's favor on us), and got to our hotel. We walk in to an amazing room with tons of space and a sea view. We go to dinner where a buffet of over 30 dishes were being served and they all tasted amazing! We set up our rooms are planning our day tomorrow. It's sure to have it's own adventures. But for now, I am going to crawl into bed and sleep a full night of sleep. That hasn't happened in 4 straight days so far.

I miss you Emma. Mommy and Daddy Love you! Have fun with your grandparents and know that we think about you all day.