Traveling to paris

4:00am came very early this morning. Valerie was up as she had not really slept. I  got about 3 hours of sleep, but awoke with a sore jaw from clenching my teeth presumably for three hours. We both awoke without an alarm. We had everything arranged to leave. A ride to the airport,  arrangements for a ride home from the Tampa airport, our bags packed, our flight reservations changed. We had purchased a local SIM card for about $2. While I was on the phone with delta my minutes expired. So, our very good friend David Shenning was so kind as to FaceTime with us and call delta to finish making the changes to our return flights. Thank you David. We even had arrangements for the hotel to prepare for us breakfast (a box lunch) for us to take to the airport. Every detail managed. A portable DVD player and headphones for the long flights ahead, layered clothing, chewing gum, passports, adequate cash, pillows, books, magazines, everything we needed and other things just to make the trip more manageable. We had it all together. What could go wrong?

Our driver, Sasha (Alex), they all have nicknames and multiple variations and spellings. They do not seem to be terribly particular, whereas we (Americans) get so bothered if someone mispronounces our name that we probably pronounce funny to begin with, or misspell our name even though we probably spell it wrong ourselves. He arrived early. We got everything together and made it to the airport 2 hours prior to our flight. We found the Air France ticket agent and handed them our passports to get our tickets and begin our journey. The ticket agent then informed us that I had a ticket, but Valerie did not. Well, sure we do. Here is the confirmation number, no problem. No, you have no ticket for this flight, you must contact delta. Ok. How do we do that?  She says, I don't know.

There is no delta ticket agent in Kiev. So, the flight is departing in 90 minutes and I have to decide if I am going to get on the plane home and leave Valerie in the airport in Ukraine ;). So, what do we do?  I texted my very good friend David Shenning to see if he was available to bail me out AGAIN at 10:00pm his time. He was very kind and gracious to call delta and pretend to be me to confirm our flights. He texts me back to say, flights are confirmed. You are good. We go back to the ticket agent and she says, no, you have no ticket in our system. You must have a ticket number for this flight or we can do nothing for you. Ok. So we text our very good friend AGAIN. He calls delta AGAIN. Sorry David, I need a ticket number. He texts me back with a ticket number.  Praise God, thank you for David. So, back to the ticket agent, the rather rude ticket agents, the not so helpful, caring, or compassionate ticket agents. We are feeling more confident now with a ticket number. Here ya go. Let's get this party started now. She goes to another computer and returns to inform us that this ticket number is for a flight for Valerie from Ukraine to Tampa in May. You must call delta to have them reissue a ticket for her. We are now one hour prior to departure. And it is 11:00pm for David.

DAVID??!??!!!  Please help us... AGAIN!!  So, David calls delta, YET AGAIN. There is a few minutes of silence. I started to get a little anxious. Allow me to pause a moment in the story to explain something.

God is so incredible!  He put Valerie and I together a LOOOONG time ago. We are different people now than we were when we met. We have both grown in many ways. But we are still different people, with different reactions at different times to different circumstances.  These differences are almost always complimentary. She is calm when I am angry. She is relaxed when I am anxious. She is thankful when I am self-absorbed. She is sometimes happy that I am sad 😜.

This time, she was angry and I was calming her. Valerie had already had her fill of the rude and unhelpful Air France ticket agents. I was not thrilled either, but I was able to realize that anger would not be terribly beneficial to us at this moment. Believe it or not, I said to Valerie, "Easy Tiger."  I did not even get in trouble.

I started to become anxious. I knew that David was working on it and God had it taken care of, but the clock began to tick. The Air France ticket agents became fewer and I began to worry that if and when we finally got the tickets straightened out, they would tell us that we would not be able to check our luggage through or the flight was closed. I did not express my anxiety to Valerie, but she showed me her phone to show me what she was reading at that very moment. It read, "when it's out of control, it's simply out of your control." And "God will fight your battles for you. Be still."  Oh, right!  Be not anxious. I think we have covered that before. Trust Me! Yes, I am sure we have covered that one several times. Why must I be reminded EVERY TIME?  Ok. Got it AGAIN, thanks. Thank You for using your Word and my wife, my gift to help me. Deep, slow breaths, decrease your heart rate. This is no big deal. You're not in danger. Simply change your perspective. You are not in control, and that is good!

Then, a text. Expiration number of your credit card?  $88 and two or three more texts and viola. "Yes, your ticket is ok."  Thanks AGAIN David. The ticket agent even moved our seats around to seat us together on all three flights. She was sweet. Was it simply our perspective???

We went through security and seated at the gate 10 minutes prior to commencement of boarding. I asked Valerie, and I will accurately quote my question and her response to give you the flavor. "How is it possible to buy a ticket for an international flight, at the gate one hour before takeoff and be early for the flight?"  Her one word response, "God". That is sort of the theme here, huh?