Currently, the two littles and I are hanging out in Berlin with hubby before he continues to his next destination. Sometimes, I forget how unusual our life has become until someone expresses surprise. For example, the first day of school I mentioned to my daughter’s preschool teacher that we would be out of town for a couple of weeks.
I explained, “My husband travels quite a bit, so whenever he is in a location that is easy to get to, we meet him there.”
“Germany is easy to get to?!”
I thought about it for a moment. I imagine she expected me to say that we were going to Atlanta or New York or wherever other dads travel on business. Considering his Germany trip is flanked on either end by Tokyo and Kazakhstan, yes, I consider it easy to get to. Our teens can go on those trips without me, but I can’t do a 12-15 hour flight with little ones in tow. Nine hours on one plane is my absolute limit.
Unfortunately, on this trip, I hit my breaking point in the Newark, New Jersey airport. As we rushed to make our connection, my five-year-old looked up at said, “Mommy, why are your eyes watery?”
At that point, I dissolved. To make matters worse, she continued apologizing. She thought my tears were due to the fact that she couldn’t walk fast enough. Poor kid! At ages three and five they are seasoned travelers, and know the importance of getting through the terminal in a timely manner, but this had nothing to do with her. It was the sheer craziness of my life, and the exhausting events leading up to that moment, that came crashing in on me.
My life is not difficult, and I would be remiss to try to make you think otherwise. It is actually amazing, and I often find myself wondering why the Lord has blessed me with these particular opportunities. But it is also exhausting. Granted, if the remodeling was finished things wouldn’t be quite so overwhelming. But even that, I recognize as a blessing. I have wanted to make some changes for the past fifteen years; I just never realized how involved it would get.
So, I ended up making an international flight with two preschoolers, and I’d only had four hours of sleep. The house had been filled with contractors, decisions had to be made before I could leave, and there were a number of business related items weighing on my mind. Can you schedule work to be done in seven countries over a ten week period? Yes. Should you? Probably not. Especially if you haven’t had a kitchen for four months. I know it sounds illogical, but mothers with five children and no kitchen sink are in no shape to run a business. You have no idea how insane you can become until you realize your only options for rinsing out a sippy cup are to wait for your teenage daughter to come out of the bathroom, or use the garden hose.
I took the kids’ carry-on bags, and we made a last minute sprint to the gate. With tears streaming down my face, I boarded the plane to London and got the children settled in for the night. Our flight attendant was one of the kindest I had ever met. She mentioned giving the kids Benadryl to help them sleep, and I told her I don’t do that (anymore). I assured her I was not usually an emotional wreck, but the tears continued to flow.
A few minutes later she discreetly handed me a puke bag and a plastic cup. “It’s what we call ‘mommy Benadryl.’”
Inside the bag were two bottles of sparkling white wine. My tears gave way to laughter. I took a deep breath, and adjusted my perspective a bit. I knew I would end up going thirty hours without sleep. I knew the London layover would require an immense amount of walking. I knew the kids would be exhausted and whining and unable to keep a decent pace. But I also knew what awaited me at the end: hubby’s handsome grin and warm embrace, and a big plate of Wienerschnitzel with fried potatoes.
When it’s all said and done, he will have the entire months of November and December off from work. Our kitchen will be finished, and life will have some sense of normalcy about it. And, who knows? Maybe, eventually, I’ll feel up to tackling that trip to Kathmandu.
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