Travel Nightmares

We woke up early on our last morning with my mom and dad. Because of our horrible day of weather related travel the day before, we were worried that they might not get out of Heathrow. However, the website said that their flight was still due to leave. We hugged and kissed them goodbye, put them on the Tube to the airport, and went to the Rubies to wait. If their flight was cancelled, we were going to go pick them up. However, if we had heard the horror stories from our friends Dave and Mindy before we dropped them off, we totally would not have sent them down in the first place. 

This sweet couple went through all kinds of horrors before Nathan and Will picked them up at a nearby Tube station. Dave said he felt like Joseph, keeping watch over Mary when there was no room in the inn. Mindy, who was 30 weeks pregnant at the time, had to sleep on the floor in the airport all night. They said that people were fighting, getting drunk, weeping, kids were screaming, the bathrooms were overused and undercleaned, there was not enough food and water, no information was being given, the airport was closed, the Tube was closed, airport employees were not coming to work (who can blame them?) and it was generally a complete nightmare. They couldn't rebook their flights in time to get to California until after Christmas, so they decided to just cancel their trip altogether. The question was, however, how to get back to Durham?

Thankfully, God took care of them in remarkable ways, and they were able to make contact with the Rubies. They came to the Rubies' house completely exhausted. We heard about God's provision for them in truly terrible and disappointing circumstances. This was the first Christmas Mindy and Dave were away from their families. 

Meanwhile, I was keeping an eye on their flights online and I was able to give Mom and Dad updates by calling them on a friendly stranger's cell phone. They said that they had been locked out of the airport for an hour in the cold, and they would only let women and children in at first. Talk about another Titanic reference! They were not allowed to speak with any airport or airline employees and were generally pretty hopeless about being able to get out. Heathrow was basically in hysterics.

Events transpired later that included my mother interpreting for an American Deaf couple stranded in the airport, which got their seats moved being in the middle in the back of the plane to an exit row. Then they actually got ON the plane a few hours later, sat on the runway for a few more hours, and miraculously took off - one of three planes that left the airport that day out of more than 700.

After showers for Dave and Mindy and another hot meal by Rachael, the four of us got in the car and drove back to Durham. We are still in awe that my parents got home and that we were able to get our friends home too.

Here we all are... tired and travel weary but very happy for the Lord's gift of friendship. Me, Nathan, Emily, Rachael, Mindy, Dave, and Will.

Here's Dave and Mindy's Facebook status update that they posted Sunday night when they got home.

Well, after 16 hours at Newcastle airport due to cancellations, a 4 1/2 hour bus ride to Heathrow airport in London, 7 hours on our plane to LAX that never left the departure gate, 12 hours overnight at Heathrow airport on the floor, a 1 1/2 hour ride on the tube to get to the Rubie's wonderful (and warm) home, and then a 4 hour car ride up to Durham thanks to Nathan and Nicole, we're finally back in Durham...where we started on Friday morning. Thanks be to God for His grace and the love and concern of so many.