Our Adventure to MEXICO!

Sam entertaining himself as we wait on standby!

Sam and Ella entertaining us.

Sam, Jessie, Ella and Omar sleeping on our cots in the airport.

The usual drive to Mexico is about 27 hours from our grand rapids door stop to our mexico door stop, our plane trip took us over 39 hours for the exact amount of distance! We arrived to Chicago 50 minutes before our flight departure due to getting side track by going to the "Golden Nugget" for breakfast and not knowing the correct directions on how to get back to the airport. After being on the plane for an hour and some mintutes we were told that there was bad weather in Dallas (our connection) and our plane was being devirted to El Paso, TX. When we arrived there, everyone there was devirted there from Dallas, it is a mad house. They had run out of food at the majority of the restaurants and the ones that did have food have hour long lines. It being lunch time, the children were starving. So Jessie went and bought bags of chips and cookies so we could all eat. By this point and time, I am a mess. Crying non stop. Jessie is doing all in her power to get another flight, rental etc... But as soon as we think we have a rental car, we find out that we are flying back into Dallas and to load the plane. I couldn't be happier, it takes less then an hour to arrive but as soon as we do, the truth emerges. No flights are going out of Dallas for the rest of the day due to the tornadoes. No hotels or rental cars are available, and that we will be on standby the next day because due to the storm in Dallas ... we were 3 +2 out of 13,000 people that were not able to get their desired locations. Again, I am crying. Finally, we thought we could stay with my Tia Marica (my dad's sister) who lives in Fort Worth, TX. It was all done and said until we were not able to get transportation there due to not having the kids car seats that were still on the plane and we could not get them off. Therefore, the only option we had was staying the night in the airport. Never have I ever felt homeless, until this moment. We found a corner, blocked it off with chair and laid our 3 cots down. It was hard to sleep at first with all the noise, lights and cold air ( we didn't even have blankets). I was grateful that I packed Sam his blanket and pillow on the carry on. We were all sleeping wonderful until we were rudely awaken around 2:30 a.m., exempt for Sam, by a Cracked out women hitting the glass with her shoes yelling "Ernie". I wanted to kill her, Jessie went to get security while I yelled "No" for her to stop. There was no security around and by the time they did come she had stopped. By now, Ella is screaming at the top of her lungs because she is so tired. It takes her about an hour before she can get back to sleep. We all are up early that morning. I walk around with Sam to find somewhere to get breakfast, we decide McDonald's. On our way back to our corner we see that they have posted the standby list for our flight we are numbers 18, 19, & 20. The flight is schedule to fly out at 9:20. We end up not getting the flight, so we are put on the next list for standby, the flight is schedule to depart at 12:20. By now, we are rapidly running out of diapers. We are unable to find any in the stores and Sam is Mr. Shitty Shitty Bang Bang and usually poops 4-5 times a day. Jessie and Omar get boarding passes first, I cry again for the thought I could be there any longer. Jessie fights to get me a boarding pass, relief! We finally board the plane, we end up waiting for at least 30 minutes because the workers are on lunch and have to wait for someone to take us out. We finally arrive in McAllen, TX. It's not until we get to the boarder, we have to stop and get our car searched then we are told we can't pass a rental because we don't have the original documents. Again, I start to cry. Jessie even cries this time. The man calls Jessie back into the immigration building and by the grace of GOD allows us to pass the rental car. We are in MEXICO!