Quick decisions & long trips

As some of you may have heard by now, we decided that ieva & I should hop a plane for North America in order to see my grandmother while there's still time. Things happened quickly:

• last friday I talked with my mom at 6:30am to get an update on grandma's health - she advised us to come, as it wasn't looking like she'd last until our scheduled trip back in June
• around noon on friday I went to a travel agent to see what kind of prices/schedules I could find for flying to Michigan within the next few days
• there was a flight leaving Vilnius (our capital city) at 7:30am on saturday for Chicago that we could get for a relatively decent price considering the short notice
• we booked the flight & I ran around Klaipeda picking up a few things & meeting with some colleagues to wrap up some details at the college
• Andrew had a basketball game at 6:30pm on friday that ieva & I watched
• we brought an LCC car home after the game, packed a suitcase & drove the 3.5 hours to Vilnius, arriving at the airport hotel around 2am
• we got up at 5:30am, walked to the airport, said goodbye to Andrew & were in the air by 8am
• upon arrival to Amsterdam where we were supposed to connect to Chicago, we discovered that the flight to Chicago was cancelled & were rebooked on a flight leaving at the same time for Detroit - which is about the same distance for my folks to drive, but easier since they don't have to go through Chicago to get there
• I scurried to find a phone in the Amsterdam airport to call dad & tell him to drive west to Detroit, rather than east to Chicago to get us, but couldn't get the phone to take my credit card
• a nice pilot happened to be walking by & offered to let me make the call on his mobile phone (such a blessing!!) & I left a message on mom & dad's machine
• ieva did amazingly well on the long flight - thankfully we had an empty seat next to us (have I mentioned how incredible our baby is??)
• we got off the plane in Detroit with no luggage, since there wasn't enough time to get it on the plane with us, and thankfully dad had gotten the message (although just barely!) and was there waiting for us
• we proceeded to wander in the parking structure for a half hour looking for his car, and then ieva & I went back inside to wait as he searched for another hour - finally finding it in the exact place he thought he had left it, but on a different level (senior moment, dad?)
• we arrived home around 3:00am Lithuania time (8pm Michigan time) and crashed
• sunday morning we went to church with dad & then drove up to Lansing in the afternoon to see Grandma, my mom & aunts
• As of this writing (noon in Michigan on Monday), our suitcase has still not arrived & we're getting stinky!! (but I called the luggage people this morning & they assured me it would be delivered later today - let's hope so, or I fear I may actually turn into my mother after wearing all of her clothes!)

Despite the last-minute craziness of this trip, I am so very glad we decided to do it. Grandma looked good, all things considered, but it's pretty clear she doesn't have much time left. The time we'll get to spend with her in the next two weeks will be a blessing!

Thank you for your prayers for us & my family. We are thankful!