Departure Day

Our dear friend Kathy was very kind to get up early and volunteer to give us a ride to the airport this morning.

Right before we arrived at the airport, we were discussing if we would depart from domestic or international terminal since we would stop over Chicago first. Thinking about our destination was Paris, three of us agreed that we were going to international terminal. Kathy dropped us off, wished us a great trip, she took off, and we headed to the check in counter.

As we were very excited to check in at the international counter, we were told that we would have checked in at the domestic terminal. Both Spencer and I carried our 3 pieces of luggage and 2 carry on bags and walked toward domestic.

Just as we were so relieved and ready to hand over our luggage at the domestic check in counter, the ticketing agent told us that our luggage were over-weight and they would charge $120 per luggage. Man, that would be $360 for 3 pieces. We decided to pull out a duffle bag we brought and stored in one of the luggage and “redistribute” the weight of all of our belongings. So here you see 2 people knee down on the floor with 3 pieces of open luggage, look through all the stuff they have packed. After a few trials, we were able to void that $360 charge.

By now, we sweated and stressed out a little, but we were ready to go through security and headed to the gate. We got onto the plane and were ready for that “take off” announcement. Instead of “take off”, we heard that there’s some problems with the plane and the mechanics would be working on it. We waited for about an hour, and there seemed no progress on the repair. As passengers started getting anxious, some of them got out of their seats and started walking around, others turning on their cell phone calling their friends and family. Spencer and I also turned on our cell phone checking emails and texting friends.

Amazingly, my cell phone rang, and it was Guei Ju Jei. She was shocked to hear my voice, so was I to hear hers. She said, “aren’t you supposed to be in the air now?” I told her what happened to the airplane. She said: “let’s pray.” After the prayer, she told me that she was driving and God told her to call me. She thought that Spencer and I would be on the plane, but she took that step of faith and called us anyway. Both Spencer and I were touched, because during that “anxious” and “unknown” moment of airplane repair time, God sent Guei Ju Jei to calm us down and let us know that God is with us on the airplane, and everything was going to be okay!! It was so real that God was with us, and He was repairing the airplane Himself for all of us.

The repair took about 2 hours, and we finally took off from San Francisco airport. Fast forward, we arrived at the Chicago O’Hare airport just about 10 minutes after our connecting flight to Paris had already taken off. All other connecting flights to London and adjacent cities were full. United Airlines gave us hotel vouchers so we could spend the night in Chicago and fly to Paris via Frankfurt tomorrow afternoon. So, we will be in Paris one day later. As our dear friend Jenny said, good things are worth the wait. Haha

Just a quick side note, it was about 21 degrees in Chicago, and some light snow flakes were coming down from the sky. Man, it was cold.