Our Years of Travel, Part Two

December 2006: Traveling to Spain

Continuing on in our travels…

December 2006: Joe signed with a team in Spain and we traveled on New Year’s Eve. There were a lot more people on those flights than I expected. Elijah was such an incredible sleeper, so I expected that he would do really well at 9 months of age. Well, he threw me for a loop and did not sleep the entire night-time flight from Philadelphia to Madrid (I stood and swayed with him for probably 2/3 of the time to keep him quiet), or the two hour train ride to Zaragoza. Abby (33 months) did fall asleep for a bit on the plane and then was knocked out on the train.

June 2006: At this point Abby was 3 years old and Elijah was 13 months. This was when we started to see that traveling would get better as at least ONE of the kids got older. Abby and Elijah enjoyed sitting together on the train and plane and kept each other occupied for a lot of the time. By the end, Elijah did finally fall asleep.

June 2006: Traveling Home from Spain

January 2007: Joe was signed to play in Turkey, but Banvit didn’t want all of us coming with him until they decided if they wanted to keep him. So at 6 months pregnant, I traveled by myself with a 3.5 year old and a 20 month old. After a pretty easy flight to London (no sleep, but I figured they wouldn’t) I was feeling pretty confident, but when we arrived in London, I was thrown for a loop when I was told my double stroller had been sent through to Istanbul. And in London at that time, we were not allowed to wait at our gate. We were in a smokey, small waiting area looking to see what gate we were at. Abby fell asleep there and Elijah was hard to contain. When our gate was revealed, I could not rouse Abby. I had to basically drag Abby, Elijah, a car seat and 3 carry-on bags to the gate while people just stared at me. We all crashed from exhaustion on the flight from London to Istanbul. Once again, my stroller was no where in sight (turns out it was still back in London!) so thankfully some airport personnel helped me out the door. There we met a Banvit employee who took us to the ferry boat station where we had to wait 3 hours for the next ferry to take us 2 more hours to Bandirma. I basically collapsed on Joe when we met him at the ferry boat station in Bandirma!

May 2008: Traveling Home from Turkey

May 2008: We traveled back from Turkey with a 4 year old, 2 year old and 1 month old. The travel back started the night before with a ferry boat ride to Istanbul and overnight stay. The next morning we had to go to the airport with Joe’s assistant coach because Banvit had not paid for our residence permit while there. So we had to go pay a fine and get some paperwork. We left a few hours before our flight, but the window where this had to be done was a zoo. We sat there for an hour before we were even at the window. By the time our paperwork was done, we were sprinting to our gate. Thankfully, they held the plane for us. During the flight from Istanbul to New York, Naomi refused to do anything but be on me nursing. So Joe was in charge of Abby and Elijah most of the time. They both spent almost the whole time watching DVDs and enjoying the airline treats. On the flight from New York to Philadelphia they both slept though and never woke up until the next morning.

August 2008: Taking an overnight flight with a 4.5 year old, 2.5 year old and 4 month old was the biggest challenge for Joe and I in our communication. It is tiring to have 3 young ones, so we have found we need to grant a lot of grace to one another during the time. We flew from Philadelphia to London and then from London to Istanbul. Once again, Naomi would only sleep while nursing, so I once again had a sore back and Joe was a bit tired. This time we both collapsed when we got to Bandirma.

So what will we have in store this time? Only God knows, but I will be sure to take lots of pictures and document our trip (the good and the bad!)