Round and Round the Mulberry Bush

Saturday evening, very late, (or was it Sunday morning very early?

I climbed into the bed I was given at 1:00 Am and was rousted at 4:00 Am. We were driven to Dublin Airport for an 7:00 Am departure.

We and our luggage came through the front door where we were supposed to check our bags. The airport was pretty empty. Richard announced that he couldn’t find Darlene’s and his passports.

So we methodically opened all their bags and suitcases and then we did it again, and then we did it a third time. All of us together couldn’t find the missing passports. All this time the time to depart of Edinburg  crept closer and closer. 

Eventually, he went to the help desk that was just around the corner from where we and our sad selves were clustered. At the help desk they told Richard that the American embassy would be open Monday morning and then he and Darlene could get temporary passports.

After our third time of looking, Richard sat on the floor with his back to a pillar and simply stared straight ahead. There was no more room in his head to think about what should be done next.

I sat down next to him and said, “OK, Richard, what do we know to be the truth?

And we ticked off the list of things that were undeniable.

1. The embassy would open on Monday morning and they could temporary passports then.
2. They would have to find a hotel near the embassy 
3. We could go on without them and have them catch up with us.

 It was decided that we would cancel our plane tickets to Edinburgh and stay close to Darlene and Richard instead of splitting our group in two. So he went off to cancel the airline tickets at the help desk around the corner. We sadly watched them as they disappeared.

All of a sudden, Richard was walking back toward us! He had found the passports! They were in the money belt he had on under this shirt.

Praise God! He headed back to the help desk and asked if we could still use the tickets he had just cancelled. And the wonderful lady behind the desk said, “Yes!” So we checked our luggage, got the boarding passes and headed to Security. By that time the airport had filled up rather dramatically.

We got on the line that was slowly creeping along and each of us  checked our phones and wristwatches way more often than was good for us. Finally, we reached the conveyor belts and filled our plastic bins. I handed my baby Martin over and they took it to a separate table to thoroughly search it. And I mean THOROUGHLY!

It took 20 minutes for them to open the case, take the the guitar out, completely swab, wand and peek through every bit of  everything…three times by three different inspectors!

We rushed toward the gate but we missed the plane. It was taxiing away from the gate. We would not be visiting the Hebrides.

Now, all this time Darlene had sat in her walker/chair and we had made mad dashes from one of the airport to the other.

When we found out we had missed the plane and would need to go back to the very beginning and purchase new tickets, a wonderful man came and took us most of the way behind the “magic curtain,” that is, in hallways not open to the general population, and getting us back to the beginning in much less time.
So, we got new tickets, went through security again. The guitar was handled much more quickly, and finally we were able to sit down and have a bit of breakfast.

We made our rescheduled flight and landed in Edinburgh after an hour of flight. We rented another car at the airport (and Tom made sure we had a spare tire!) and headed into the heart of the city.

Our hotel was a Holiday Inn next to a venue where there was a dog show just as we were sitting down while Richard got our room keys.
We saw, dachshunds and Irish wolf hounds and lots of border collies.

Now, some people might have thought these were terrible days. And maybe some did.
But when the group stuck together, prayed for the best possible outcome and saw the results of those prayers we knew we were victorious. Did we miss the trip to the Hebrides? Yes, we did. Were we sad? Yes we were. Were we filled with the ineffable joy of God's presence? I did! I think the others did too. Would I have exchanged the joy of God's presence for that trip to the Hebrides? Not on your life!

We slept in the next morning, not rising until 9:00.