Friday morning brought a feeling of excitement to our family. Amelia was just bubbling about how fun it was going to be to have a sleepover at Uncle Roy and Aunt Mary’s house. Luke was downright giddy. Isaac was wonderfully cheerful and helpful. Laura was the most hesitant of all the children, saying that she wished we didn’t have to go or that she could go with us.

We jumped into action working to get our final to-do list all done. I did a final check of the children’s suitcases, Michael got our tech stuff all set, and finally our bags were packed. Michael had a challenging job to get all four bags evenly packed and the right weights.

When the time came to run errands, we all piled in and started the circuit. Off to the bank, to the Walsh house, to Roy & Mary’s to drop off suitcases, and so it went. By 1 pm we were ready for lunch, so we took the children out to eat for a rare treat at Culver’s. On top of that, we let them order things that were NOT on the children’s menu! Laura got the shrimp dinner, Isaac chose the cod dinner, and Luke splurged on the big chicken finger basket. We had a nice time visiting and giving the kids last-minute bits of instruction as we thought of things.

We went back home to do the last few things and then it was time to go. Mary had invited us to come for supper, so we headed to their house to spend the last few hours before we had to be at the church. It was nice to help the children get their things situated and to spend time with them rather than just dropping them off and hurrying away. I especially wanted to make sure Judah was going to be ok, since he really didn’t understand the scope of what was happening.

Supper was delicious. The children behaved well, and we enjoyed our final family get-together. Before we knew it, it was time to tuck Judah into his little bed and then we needed to hurry to the church. Judah wasn’t sure at all that he wanted to sleep where I told him to lay down, but he was so tired that his resistance soon melted into slumber. Then we gave hugs all around and drove away to the church. What a strange feeling.

There were lots of group details to take care of once we arrived at the church. Our traveling team was all wearing bright orange t-shirts, so we were a bright group! We listened to announcements, checked suitcases, took a group photo, had prayer time, and finally it was time to pile into the two big vans that would take us to Chicago.

The time seemed to fly by since we were all chattering and making sure our two vehicles didn’t get separated at tollbooths. At the airport we piled back out of the vans, claimed our suitcases, and headed in.

Once we got through the check-in process and got to our gate, it was time to sit and wait. Our flight would not leave until after 3 a.m., and it was only midnight. Two different groups started playing card games, but the more sensible ones of the group found a quiet place to lie down and try to sleep for a little while. I was very grateful that I was able to doze off. I don’t do well with missed sleep, so I was grateful for every little bit I got.

At long last the call came to board the plane. We all filed to our seats and got comfortable. I was pleased that we didn’t have to wait long at all before we taxied to our runway and took off. I guess that’s one benefit of flying at 3 a.m.

As soon as we were at our cruising altitude, the stewards started serving drinks and breakfast. I really enjoyed having a hot meal, even though it was at an obscene hour. As soon as the meal was served and eaten, the crew started a movie and turned off the overhead lights. The plane got very quiet then, and most of our team was able to sleep.