Thank you for coming back. I'll try to wrap this up and make it worth your time.
After J declined the flight offer from the AA rep and hung up the phone, all the events of the past several hours suddenly took their toll on us both, and we rode in silence for a while.
Truthfully, having already made peace in my mind that we were going to have to stay in Dallas one more night, I wanted to make the best of it. Of course, I couldn't wait to get my arms around those little ones that I knew were wondering where in the world we had gone.... but at that point, it seemed we had no other choice.
Oh, but I had forgotten about that car option. J, on the other hand, had NOT.
I love him. I love that J came out of that movie ready to go to war for the sake of getting us home to our children. I love that his mind thinks of all the options and does not hesitate to play all of the cards. I love his determination and the steely look on his face when he is trying to right a wrong, even when the world is against him.
And even though I really wanted him to CHILL (and I think I actually said this to him at one point), oh how nice it was when we drove that little compact rental car into Amarillo at five in the morning going 30 miles an hour on snow and ice. We were home. We were in the same city as our babies. We were going to get to wake them up in the morning.
Actually, it was already morning. We were going to get to wake them in approximately 2-3 hours.
Furthermore, after the first initial half-hour of silence, the drive home became a jumping off point for some dialogue about topics that we had not been able to sit down and really discuss in detail in a while; for example, visions for our family, careers and ministry, and -drumroll please - home improvement (Yee-hah!)!
I can't believe I'm going to say this, but the 7 hour drive home was a blessing. To sleep one more night at a hotel would have been a luxury, but it wouldn't have yielded the conversation and time together that the drive home did provide. Sure, talking was necessary to help keep us both awake....particularly for that last sixty miles that took two hours because of the conditions. But our visiting throughout that time was a gift - these days we so rarely get to visit at length with nothing else to distract or interrupt us. Not even our time relaxing at the beach prior to this midnight drive in the darkness encouraged as much conversation and COMMUNICATION.
Though at one point, a train chugged by going the opposite direction and J joked that if the silence had lasted much longer, I could have caught a ride back to Dallas on the caboose. Funny.
And thus the full meaning of the title of this post.
Yes,this two-day airport/car rental debacle was a headache. Yes, our interaction with the various airline reps was disappointing and frustrating. But in hindsight, the inconvenience of it all made our homecoming all the more precious. Standing over those two sleeping toddlers and watching them open their eyes to the realization that yes, their parents did in fact come back for them....well, it was a memory I'll never forget. It was well worth the dark, icy drive home. They're my babies.
I'd go to the edge of darkness and back again to be with them.
To be with J.
God has so tremendously blessed me.