The Move – Part 2

Sunday (Day of Departure):

Matt woke up early around 8:00 am and I was able to sleep in until around 10:00 am. When I woke up, I had the strangest sensation. I felt like someone had poured peppermint oil all over my body. My skin felt like it was cold and burning at the same time. My first thought was: This cannot be happening. We have a flight to catch! I didn’t know what was wrong with me or what could’ve been causing it, so I Googled. I quickly figured out that what I was experiencing was a form of anxiety – something I hadn’t really dealt with in a few years. Actually, knowing that made me feel a lot better, because it meant that there was nothing seriously wrong with me. And I had successfully beaten anxiety in my life before, so I knew that I would be able to get over this episode with a little help from God and friends. I turned to my Bible and I texted friends to keep me in prayer. It worked fast, because I got up and got ready and within the hour, the sensation was completely gone. I then got the kids ready and we left for the airport at 11:00 am. Matt’s parents drove me and the kids while Matt drove his work van separately (Matt’s parents kindly took it back to FES – Matt’s previous employer – for us).

We arrived at Tampa International at noon, which gave us plenty of time to get situated before our 4:30 pm departure. When we pulled up to the departures terminal, the valet was there to meet us and grab our ten suitcases, four backpacks, and two mountain bikes. We took that bag limit the airline gave us and maxed it out. Even with that much luggage, we still only had our clothes and a few basic belongings with us. Not much made it to New Zealand – not even the “must have” items that I thought I “just couldn’t live without”. The United Airline employees at the ticket counter were extremely nice and gave Matt’s parents gate passes so they could see us off. We hung out with them for the duration of our time at the airport, which was really nice. It was a relief, too. I had no energy left in me and they tended to the kids.

A little side note: For the last week of living in Florida, we didn’t make any home-cooked meals for ourselves. We were too busy to cook so we ate frozen dinners. We also ate out a lot during that last week, which left me feeling particularly bad. I have an auto-immune disorder, and certain foods trigger me. Gluten and dairy products are two major triggers, which is why I have been gluten-free since 2013. I love dairy too much to avoid it altogether, so when I do have it I make sure to have a Lactaid or digestive enzyme readily available. But things like peppers and fried foods can also trigger me, so although Wendy’s fries are gluten and dairy free, they really bothered me because they’re deep-fried and extremely fatty. But we lived across the street from Wendy’s, so it was highly convenient during those last, busy days. Back to the point, when I repeatedly put foods in my body that don’t agree with me, my body stops absorbing nutrients and goes into flight mode to get rid of everything that doesn’t belong (I’ll stop there and spare you the details). At this point, I had been eating things for an entire week that my body was not okay with. I wasn’t absorbing nutrients from those foods – and let’s not forget that I wasn’t getting nearly enough sleep – so that combination led to me being extremely weak by the time we arrived at the airport. Definitely not how I envisioned embarking on our long journey, but that was my reality and I had to deal with it because there was no turning back.

4:30 pm came up a bit too fast. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye, but we had to board our flight first to get the children settled in their seats before everyone else boarded. Saying goodbye was extremely hard and I cried enough for me and Matt (which is true of every goodbye we said before we left). Once we were on that plane, things changed. Suddenly we only had one job: to arrive to New Zealand safe, sound, and with both kids in tow. It was such a good feeling knowing that we had nothing left to do but sit for 30 hours. We were so exhausted that we welcomed it. I didn’t want to move a muscle, so sitting in that airplane seat was the perfect place for me.

For the first flight, we flew from Tampa to Houston. The plane had three seats on each side, so me and Ellie sat on the right towards the back of the plane. Ellie had a window seat because she was sitting in her car seat and that was the rule for car seats. Matt and Landon sat directly across from us. It was a really short flight (only about 2.5 hours). Suddenly the excitement that had been flooded out by sorrow came rushing back. This was really happening! We weren’t able to talk much on that first flight because there was a nice lady sitting to my left, so we exchanged a bunch of smiles and tried speaking with our hands instead. Note: we don’t know much sign language, so it turned into a lot of pointing and exaggerated hand gestures. But before we knew it, our plane was landing in Texas and it was time for the second leg of our trip: Houston to Auckland.

Click for Part 3:

The Move – Part 3