Keeping Up with the Conners: We Made it to Jamaica!

Well we made it.

We are in Harmons, Jamaica with our whole family. When we told people we were going on this trip we got a variety of responses. Some thought it was great. Some told us we were brave. Some (maybe some grandparents) expressed some concern. Some simply told us they would pray for us which I interpret as "wow, you are going to need the Lord's help to get there and back alive." Despite the variety of opinions on Austin and I taking our kids on a 3rd world mission trip, we are excited to be here and have loved seeing an entirely different world opened up to our kids.

As we were in route down here I began to wonder if we had made a huge mistake. Traveling with two little ones is WORK. I never realized how easy it was to fly on a plane without kids. I found myself growing envious of the people around us taking naps, reading books, flipping through magazines, and other leisurely things. Meanwhile we were working our tails off to keep our two year old occupied and our one year old busy with tearing pages out of the Sky Mall magazine.

As if it's not hard enough to travel with two kids two and under, we encountered quite a few obstacles.

Let me back up a bit...

The night before we left we stayed at my in-laws house.

As we were packing up some last minute things in our suitcases we weighed them to make sure they were both under the 50 pound weight limit.

One was 68 pounds and the other was 54. Yikes.
We had to frantically redistribute clothing, food, and toiletries to our carry-ons and even pluck a few unnecessary items out. So now my carefully packed and organized carry-ons were stuffed full of clothes, shoes, towels, and kid clothes.

After waking up at 5 am we headed to the airport only to find out that Tyler didn't have a boarding pass. It was a 30 minute process to get one which put our kids on edge.

So picture this scene. Two slightly frazzled parents with four huge, bursting at the seams carry-ons pushing a huge double stroller containing a overly tired 2 year old and a fussy infant. Now imagine trying to get all of that through security. Only one minor meltdown in that process.

We made it to our gate, got boarded and settled in ok. The flights went ok. Adelyn was a bit spooked by the take offs and landings but we managed. Tyler slept well on me in the Ergo and Austin did a great job keeping Adelyn busy.

We landed in Jamaica, collected our huge carry-ons and began to move the circus towards immigration and customs. At this point it was 2 p.m. and both our kids had only cat-napped on the plane so they were getting really tired.

We were headed towards immigration when Austin realized he had left our immigration forms on the plane. In a panic he had to backtrack and go hunting for our forms. When he finally got back to us we headed through the airport halls to be met with an insanely long line for immigration.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that it was probably a two hour line. I almost collapsed out of defeat at that point. I told Austin, "Our kids are going to go insane!" At that point I seriously prayed, "Lord, please let a staff person see us in this crowd and get us through faster." I kind of laughed at my prayer because it seemed ridiculous to ask that. There were lots of other kids in line and the airport was obviously understaffed.

Anyway, while I was making trips back and forth to the bathroom with kids to change diapers and airport staff person went up to Austin and told him to step out of line and then he walked away. Austin was furious. He thought we were going to lose our place in line and have to wait even longer. He then came back and told us he was going to get us through the line faster.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME.

It was one of the most direct, answered prayers I have ever experienced.

He checked over our forms and simply led us around the hundreds and hundreds of people straight to an immigration officer who stamped our passports and let us through.

It was a miracle.

However, we didn't get off that easy. We went to collect our bags only to realize that one was missing. A carry-on that we checked at the gate of the plane didn't make it. Ugh.

Our kids were exhausted, hot, hungry and really starting to act up.

I began the process of reporting our lost bag which ended up taking 45 minutes. As I'm talking to the man at the desk I can hear Adelyn's blood-curdling screams from across the baggage claim. She was losing it people. I don't blame her. So was I.

Finally we got the lost bag reported, arrangements made to pick it up in a few days, and headed out.

Luckily our ride was still there waiting for us as we packed up our kids and began a 3 hour drive into the heart of Jamaica. Tyler slept most of the drive and Adelyn was pleasant too. She ended up sleeping the last hour of it.

We made it to the Harmony House, got unpacked, got kids down to bed, and finally sat down to rest.

Here are a few pictures I've taken of our journey so far.