Traveling Mercies

Maybe it's the storyteller in me, but I always feel the need to begin each blog post with a weather update.  Setting is important, you know.  Currently the rain is falling on the conservatory roof filling the living room with a pleasant background noise.  The living room shade is drawn, so at 8:41 a.m. it's still dark.  James is snuggled up next to me on the leather love seat playing Angry Birds Epic on my phone.  

At this time one week ago we were sleeping peacefully before waking up for a full day of trans-Atlantic travel.  It rained the morning we left Alabama, too, but not a pleasant English rain.  It was a rolling thunder, flashing lightning, flash flood that swept the garbage cans down the street kind of a rain.  It was quite the dramatic exit scene.

I recorded some video with my phone that features me in my breathiest southern accent saying, "Oh, my stars."  That made me laugh.  

I really enjoyed our drive across Alabama.  I took in all the many forests of pine trees, and we counted Alexander Shunnarah signs until we hit Georgia.  The rain was pretty heavy in a lot of places, which made it hard to see, but I think we hit 19?  

This was the first time we drove to the Atlanta Airport for a departure.  We usually go through security in Birmingham and connect in Atlanta, and we were impressed with how smooth and peaceful international check-in was.  Taking off your shoes and situating all your small electronics and see-through bags of liquids while TSA agents yell at you is usually pretty stressful to my senses, but it was strangely quiet, the TSA agent spoke in a calm voice, and I didn't feel like people were in a hurry at all.  Bonus grace for us is that KJ's new surgical parts don't seem to set off metal detectors.  And they really do try to make it easier for people traveling with kids.  

We had three seats together and one separated from the rest on the wing, which K.J. gave to me, so my flight was spent peacefully watching movies, eating snacks, dozing, and for the last hour, when the man seated next to me discovered I was a Christian, I did my best to field questions on the existence of God, Jesus, and the historical accuracy of the Bible.  That conversation was then followed by discovering the flight attendant sitting across from us had spent part of the holidays with Hank Aaron, "who was like a father" to her.  Planes are fun.