Christmas Flying (and not on a sleigh)

On Christmas Day we flew out of Dulles on a teeny tiny plane that took us to Montreal. Despite my great fears of claustrophobia on tiny planes and my past experiences of choppy flights whenever being on a small plane, the flight was delightfully smooth and uneventful. We, and our baggage, made it to Montreal and then on to our next plane with just enough time to go to the bathroom. The next plane to Barcelona was one of those giant numbers with two aisles and more than half a dozen bathrooms- what I thought would be a super smooth ride based on the size.  While I could not classify that flight as a smooth flight, I must confess that all of my fears amidst the shaking turbulence were met differently than flights before. First off, I was half asleep, and by half asleep I mean my eyes were closed and all of my body wanted and tried to be asleep. Secondly, the part of my brain that was awake was constantly in prayer, constantly asking God for help, constantly praising God for what he was doing for us right now, constantly placing my trust over and over again in Him. Now was there actually turbulence if I was in a half sleep/half prayer trance? Yes, I did confirm with Eric later (who was not sitting nearby) that there was indeed a good deal of turbulence. However, turbulence does not bother Eric in the least, and the kids were already passed out.

So I must proclaim His deliverance from my fears and the generosity of God to bring us safely to land in Barcelona.

I’m not exactly sure the flight time and the math that went into the time difference, but we left Maryland at 3:45 in the afternoon on Christmas day and then arrived just before 8 in the morning on the 26th. I’m pretty sure I slept for less than 2 hours. Even if the kids got twice that much sleep, which sounds about right since they had some screen time and a meal or two, we crawled (some of us literally) through customs and then on to baggage claim. After some intense prayers and three different counters, carousels, and attendants telling me that my guitar was somewhere else, the Lord finally directed us to the correct carousel where the unusually shaped baggage for our specific airline could be and was collected.  Praise the Lord, despite my confusion, my guitar also made it with us on this leg of the trip! We sat in baggage claim and tried to find the phone number of the person who was supposed to hand off keys to us to get into our friends’ apartment, but we were unable to get a hold of them.

After a few hours of waiting, we decided to just get in a taxi and head toward the building where we were planning to stay. As we pushed our 3 carts of luggage, we had to take an elevator down to the street level. As the elevator doors opened, Beth and Zac quickly jumped out and into the throngs of people and Tali (who was pushing the cart in front of Eric and me) was not able to get her cart going before the doors closed again in front of her. I swore. Two of my babies had just vanished before my eyes in a different country. Two of the longest seconds of my life passed and the doors reopened. I again had eyes on my unfazed children. God had them in his care the entire time, I just had a freak out moment and failed a test by swearing first instead of praying. Looks like I am still desperately in need of some grace and a Savior. Thank you Jesus for both the grace and care you lavish on us, wholly undeserving. You are in control. I am not. You are a perfect Father. Thank you.

We just barely squeezed ourselves and our luggage into one taxi van (another praise because we almost didn’t fit and then would have needed to take two taxis). Piece by piece we unloaded everything onto the brick sidewalk next to the building. No keys. Just waiting and praying. Exhausted and grateful to be on the ground.

We finally followed someone else into the building and headed up to the unit where we planned to stay. The hallway in front of their apartment was dark and quiet. Our luggage and bodies filled up most of the space that was available between their front door and the stairway to the other floors and units. We were exhausted. I praise the Lord that no one needed to pee, because at this point I really had no idea where to do that. I’m sure that nature peeing is not allowed on the brick sidewalks or anywhere that we currently had access to. Eric, in his calm and patient manner, continued to call and email and text anyone who might be able to get in touch with our friend. I tried calling on facebook messenger, no dice. Eric decided to grab a cab to the guy who was supposed to have the keys for us. He found his address at the bottom of a newsletter somewhere (using his detective skills). After huffing across town, talking to neighbors, leaving a note, and zipping back, it was finally late enough in the afternoon that our hosts (who were visiting family back in the states) were awake and messaged Eric an alternate plan.

While Eric hopped on a bike (that he rented?) to meet one of our host’s coworkers to retrieve another spare apartment key, the kids and I were hunkered down in the hallway. Now, mind you, my kids and I are guarding our bags that are too numerous for us to carry, we are beyond tired, homesick, and we are stuck. At this point, I truly believe that the Lord worked all things for our good. We unpacked all jackets, blankets, stuffies, anything soft in the bags and I told the kids to build a nest. After about 4-5 minutes of whining at each other, the Lord breathed a sweet blessing of sleep upon all of us. This, my friends, I believe is truly a miracle for our sanity, for our health, for our relationships, for our emotions, for our everything.

When we awoke, Eric had a key to the apartment, we brought our things inside and the glorious sunshine of the afternoon welcomed us into a breathtakingly beautiful and clean apartment. The waiting I’m sure made the arrival all the sweeter. Eric took a quick nap and then we all headed to the beach (which we could see from our apartment window).

Did I tell you that Eric bought groceries while he was out? I mean, it’s Eric, you might have expected this level of thoughtfulness. Pictured is what he bought. It was simple. It was delicious.

At the beach we climbed a giant rope structure that looks exactly like the rope web structure at the playground in Golden Gate Park (Koret Park),  the one at Wheatley Regional Park in Maryland, and in Las Vegas in our friend’s neighborhood (Sorry Rick and Jeanette I don’t remember the name of the park.) It’s a good design. Probably my favorite play structure. I love this rope structure enough to play on it myself.

Anyways, the kids got sandy, dipped their feet in the seawater, and then Beth decided to play a trust game with Eric. The game failed and Beth’s earring somehow broke in two on the way down. Lots of screaming and crying later, we made it back inside, allowed Beth the option to remove her earring (which she insisted she wanted to take out) and then had dinner.

I put a load of laundry in the wash (which is my favorite way to feel at home in any place-just ask my kids; they’ll tell you how much I love to do laundry), and we hit the sack around 9pm (12pm California time!).

Eric, Zac, and I were up this morning just after 8. After serving Zac breakfast, I decided I could sleep a little bit longer. Eric woke me up a few minutes later and asked me if I knew what time it was. It was after 11 and we needed to get up and explore!

We took a taxi up to some public park on the hill (which apparently we needed tickets to but didn’t have) and after finding out that they were sold out for the day, we started walking down toward La Familia Sagrada.

We stopped to get pastries along the route, because it is the right thing to do when walking in Barcelona.

We arrived at La Familia Sagrada

It was gorgeous, bizarre, fascinating, strange, beautiful, and I would never ever hire this architect to build anything for me. I told Eric that this was a piece of work I could admire and appreciate, but fully admit that it was not my taste at all.

We ate mediocre food (probably too close to the touristy stuff) in a little restaurant that Eric decided was good because he saw a bunch of cops inside- Ha! Turns out the cops only ordered coffee.

We then walked to Mercats Del Encants and zigzagged through the flea market. Eric bought me a new wedding band because my rubber one fell off and was lost during packing, and our originals are tucked away in a safe back home.

(The strange artsy photo is of the ceiling above the flea market area.)

We prayed that the building would be open when we got back (since we only have an apartment key and not a building key). And of course, the building door was propped wide open. Why? Dunno, but I’m sure if you know me, you know why I think it was wide open.

We did normal things like bathing, eating, playing video games, journaling, and then got the kids down around 10pm.

Other tid bits. Some important, some not, you decide.

-My favorite Christmas Song this year that I also played on repeat while packing up in Maryland is “Almost There” by Michael W. Smith and Amy Grant.

https://youtu.be/-ClYL3pKCwI?si=nZCJoT8pNFL9tXd1

It felt appropriate in anticipation of all the things that God has planned that I have yet to see and enjoy and praise him for forever.

-Watched the latest Indiana Jones movie on the plane- I was worried that the whole film was going to be just a young CG Harrison Ford, I was relieved and delighted when old Harrison Ford and several other original cast showed up.

-We stopped at two different play grounds that popped up on our walking route today and somehow reignited energy into our children who were too tired to walk further. Not sure how that works, but if you’re a parent you might understand that there is always energy for a park, but the energy to walk to an unknown destination that your parents have merely told you about is about the worst thing that can be requested of a child.

- If you fly Air Canada, you have to pay a baggage fee for any more than one checked bag (per bag), you will not just be charged for your A to B overall travel, you will be charged per flight. So since we had a layover in Montreal, even though we never saw our bags there, what we thought would be us paying for 4 additional bags (because we had 9 checked bags total) turned out to be us paying for 4 bags twice… it was an unexpected  expense, but we praise the Lord for his provision regardless.