We are here...

Here we sit at Nadi airport - Lucas is reading a book, Ollie is sleeping in the chair next to me, Bethie is playing darts on her video game, and Jimmy is across the way at an internet kiosk, attempting to make some headway in untangling our current mess. We are in a sorry state right now - I'm sick with a nasty cold, in addition to the toes I broke and the bumps and bruises I got from falling down the basement stairs yesterday morning, Oliver is feverish, we left our camera (our expensive SLR digital with 50 mm portrait lens) on the plane in LA (we hope that is where it is anyway), our luggage (all 12 pieces of it that we had to pay $340 to check) didn't make it on the plane and is still sitting somewhere at LAX, our travel insurance wasn't activated yesterday like we expected it would be, one of our laptops broke when the bag it was in fell from a luggage cart yesterday (the laptop with all our contact info saved in it, of course) and we are all tired and smelly. Phew. I think that is it. Struggling to stay positive - had a few moments of tears and anger earlier today when we realized that we lost our camera - I was already feeling so crummy, it seemed like adding insult to injury. When we realized that none of our luggage was going to appear on the baggage carousel, for some reason I was not surprised - it seemed to fit it just right with the tone of the entire trip. Losing the luggage is an inconvenience, but at least the chances are good that we will get it all back - it is supposed to flown to us by Saturday. We can get along till then without it. But as for the camera - it feels like my fault. I was too sick, tired, and out of it to have been responsible for it yesterday - I should have put it in my backpack or check it. I hope we left it on the plane and we are able to recover it - there is a chance that I set it down at the baggage check at LAX. If that is the case, I am not optimistic that I will see it again. We were supposed to have travel insurance secured by our boss. He phoned yesterday to say that the insurance website wouldn't let him buy a policy for other people, so we should purchase a policy and he would reimburse us. In the rush of last minute tasks, we found ourselves sitting on the plane without having bought a policy. I am angry at our boss waiting for the last minute to get our travel insurance. I am angry at us for being too busy to buy a policy before we left. I am angry at myself for not being as prepared as I had wanted to be when departure day came - I had wanted to be packed and ready days before we left, and it came right down to the wire for packing up the house and packing our luggage. J and I had slept about 10 hours in 3 days as of yesterday morning, and by the time we got to LA, I was falling asleep standing up, sick with a fierce head cold, feeling battered and bruised from my fall, and useless for anything other than dragging bags to where I was told. I'm glad J was in better mental shape than me. I'm sure I was quite a sight dragging two bags as large as me through LAX, limping like a 3 legged dog. Oy. There was no time between connections for any breaks or food, so by the time we got on the plane bound for Fiji at 1:30 am our time, we still had not eaten any dinner. Paid $25 for 5 bags of chips, 3 bananas, and 2 waters on the way to the gate. Ollie wasn't feeling well at all yesterday and was too weak to carry his bag and could barely keep up as we rushed through the terminals. We were worried he would attract the attention of the airport employees and not be allowed to board the plane. Despite all of this, the kids did great - they seemed to understand we just had to keep moving. For this I am SO grateful. We travel so well as a family. We had the choice of staying here in Nadi until our luggage arrives in a day or two and being reimbursed up to $500 FJ for our expenses. That was appealing - a day or two to rest up in a hotel room, to get feeling better before finishing the last leg of our journey. That would require switching our flights to Labasa (which would cost $$) and somehow reaching our friends who are expecting to pick us up to let them know of the change in plans (can't get to any phone numbers cuz of the broken laptop). We opted for plan B, which is to finish out our travels today and trust Air Pacific to ship our luggage to us in Labasa on Saturday. The upside to that is we save $$ by not having to pay the luggage check fees, and that we will be welcomed and surrounded by friends sooner rather than later. We really need that right now. So that is where we are now - waiting for our next, and final, plane departure. The check in counter for our flight has just opened, and J is headed off right now to check us in. Hoping that goes smoothly - but would not be surprised to find that they lost our reservations or something crazy like that. But if that is the case, oh well - what can we do? The challenges and lessons of this journey are coming at us fast and steady - we are attempting to meet them with grace and acceptance. Change what we can, accept what we can't. I can change the way I prepare in the future - it was a mistake starting this journey so sleep deprived and frazzled. Won't do that again. I can change the way I look and feel about the situation - a few moments of anger and negativity were enough for me to realize that that is not how I want to be and feel. So we will see what the next chapter brings, how this crazy travel story will play out. Whatever the ending, I am grateful for helpful customer service people, for my patient and flexible kiddos (not always the case back home, but they have really impressed me the last two days), for our safety, and for the opportunity to learn and grow through this entire experience. Sega na leqa (No worries)

UPDATE:

We made the flight to Labasa a-ok and are here now making necessary phone calls before catching the boat to VV. The airline gave us reimbursement for $500 FJD ($250 USD)for clothes and tolietries, so we went on a shopping spree in the gift shops for friends back on the island - that was fun. Found out that our bags that we left behind a few months ago are waiting for us on the island (they had been in storage off-island), so we will be fine for clothes and toiletries for the next couple days. J is checking with Frontier airlines, hoping to hear that someone has found our camera.

It is surreal being here - it's like we never left and our time back in Indy was just a dream. It is crazy - like we just stepped in where we left off. But we have lots of memories from the past two months tucked away to remind us that it wasn't just a dream - we are ever aware of what we have left behind. We have all been a mixture of bittersweet emotions since leaving - leaving our friends and family back home was one of the hardest things we've ever done. If you are one of those people, know that we love and miss you more than you know! XOXO!

We will be back in on Saturday (2 days) and will try to update again then. Till then,