Change in plans

Thursday, October 9th, 2008: Day 2

At about 2:30 am Mandy and I were woken up by someone pounding on our door. I was totally confused and disoriented. I thought we had overslept and our clock was wrong or something. Apparently, Harriett and Stoney had a family emergency and had to rush back home immediately. They caught the first flight back to Pawleys to be with their family.

Everyone was upset and no one really knew what was going on. We all knew that God had a plan and we just had to trust and follow it. We all met and immediately began praying for Harriett, Stoney, and their family. Through prayer and thoughtful consideration we decided to go forward with the trip, even though we did not have our commander in chief with us.

Now it seemed like everything had changed. The mood was very somber among the group. Mandy was now in charge of the trip, taking over Harriett's "job". Mandy has been to Haiti many times (she actually can't even remember how many times she has been!), is organized, and knows how things are supposed to work. She took over all of Harriett's papers, files, and bags of information. I was amazed at how this tragedy brought the best out of our team. Everyone stepped up and did what needed to be done, no questions asked.

We had to re-pack some of our bags since we no longer had Harriett and Stoney with us. We arrived at the FTL airport around 6 AM and all the bags were checked in. The people from the airline did end up helping us, they allowed us to take 16 bags even though we now only had 13 people! Praise God, a prayer had been answered! We had Leslie (who used to run a travel agency) take over the airline stuff and she worked her magic! Bless her heart, she worked so hard and spoke to every supervisor to assure that we had all the supplies/bags that we needed. It didn't hurt that Matt was standing close by and all the airline workers (Tito) developed a crush on him! Sorry Matt.

The back of Leslie's head at the ticket counter. Thanks Leslie!!

The Doc's

Dr. Billy, Dr. Matt, Dr. Dave, Dr. Chris (hiding), and Dr. Ed at the ticket counter.

Dr. Chris and the other Docs!

Check-in was smooth and all of our luggage/boxes were within the weight limit! We did have to leave some bags and things at the Hotel that we could not take. We decided that we would pick them up on our return flight back home.

Me, Laura, Brewster, and Dr. Mandy checking in at FTL airport.

Julie and Cynthia

Now we headed through security. For those of you who have traveled recently, you know what an ordeal it is to go through security. Taking off your shoes, placing your liquids in a clear Ziploc bag and taking them out of your carry-on, taking off your jacket and placing your carry-on into the bins to then place onto the conveyor belt to be x-rayed, going through the metal detector, etc. I did have to have my bag searched because they wanted to see my fan/light that was battery powered. They let me go on my way without any other problems. Everyone else made it through unharmed!

We did not have to wait long before we boarded our flight. Upon boarding, the flight attendant had to check mine and a few other team members carry-on bag because there was no more overhead bin room. So many people had carry-on's because of the new 1 checked bag per person rule. The flight to Haiti was pretty full. I ended up having an aisle seat and I got to sit next to a young Haitian woman and her daughter.

Dr. Ed sat behind me on the flight to Haiti!

Sweet Laura sat a few rows ahead of me! Let's go!

We had a good and uneventful flight! Most importantly we made it safely! Thank you God!

Even though so many people had told me stories about previous Haiti trips, I was still so unsure of what I would see, how I would feel, and how I would be affected. Well, we'll see!

Up Next.....We Land in Haiti!