Emotional Roller Coaster
http://babyboonebumpblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/quinn-annabelle-boone-august-18-2011.html
The entire summer seemed to be building up to one single moment. I stood in line waiting to board my flight to Spain worrying if Megan would have her baby before I left. Something about the 18th felt special, Grandpa James’ 5 year anniversary, it seemed as thoughhe was looking out for us letting the events of the day culminate in a dramatic cinema fashinon.
With only a few minutes left I called Andrews cellphone, through the static I heard the screams of my infant niece, Quinn Annabelle Boone. My heart swelled to hear her belt her little lungs out and I burst into hysterical tears of joy. Knowing that my sister and niece came back healthy is an indescribable feeling. It is hard to express how much I love someone I haven’t even met yet!
The past few months had been an emotional rollercoaster. We watched Megan’s belly and my two suitcases grow and grow and GROW! When her due date passed it became even more suspenseful. On top of the baby and planning my year abroad, my family also had to face the inevitable loss of our loyal golden retriever, Crickett. Her white mask showed her 14 years of life. We watched her fade and eventually decided to put her to rest. 
One Saturday we spent our last morning with Crickett by taking a boat ride and feeding her gourmet bread from the Patisserie.- She always was a carboholic. Saying goodbye wasn’t easy, but she went peacefully, just closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep. Somehow it felt right to let her go and to end her suffering. We laid her to rest on the hill with our other animals. That evening we toasted to her life and talked about all the happy memories shared together at the lake.
With all that had come to pass this summer I found myself crying worse than the newborn as I boarded my flight. I took my seat and waited for takeoff. The excitement of Spain mingled in with bitter-sweetly with a desire to hold my niece and stay at the lake forever. It was a deep mix of knowing I love where I’ve been, where I am, and where I’m going. I took a deep breath know that in the morning I would wake up in Madrid and starting a new adventure.
That is until the skies opened and a wild thunderstorm canceled my flight. The conditions were so severe that they could not get us of the plane. We sat on the Amtrak for 4 hours. When the rain finally ceased the captain reluctantly announced that our flights would need to be rebooked. The crew had exceeded their maximum legal shifts.
We were directed to a customer service line 300+ people long. I was in disappointed, but also in shock. So much had been crammed into one day, I wasn’t quite sure how to process the situation. I waited for 3 hours in line for my turn to speak with a representative. All of the flights for the following day would not be until the evening, and were already overbooked.
I was placed on standby and was told I would probably have to wait until the following day. I accept that weather challenges travel and you have to go with the flow, but 48-72 hrs in an airport sounded terrible. I took my paper work and headed to a corner to curl up for the night. Earlier that day I had seen a girl my age wheeling an oversized koala bear on her luggage. At the time I thought she looked like an idiot, but at 3am without a bed I would have killed for a similar stuffed animal.
In the morning when the stores reopened I splurged a leopard print neck pillow. I slept for a while before heading to Starbucks for a big coffee. At checkout I spotted a penny on the floor and snatched it up luck. This time round the CS desk they were able to give me an actual ticket. Tonight I leave on the same flight; hopefully that penny continues to do the trick.Remeber I still have to survive customs in Spain!
