A semi-traumatic ending to an emotional month of visitors

The good news is, Carrie and mom have flights out of Amsterdam tomorrow.

After watching flights, and realising that Nuremberg is still canceling most of their flights and the volcanic activity could continue, we decided that perhaps they could get to Amsterdam and then fly from there. So this afternoon, Carrie called Delta and was able to get my mom on the last seat to Minneapolis tomorrow afternoon and herself on the flight in the morning directly to Portland.

We'd looked at trains to Amsterdam, and there were regular overnight departures, so we figured they'd have to leave this evening between 5:30 and 7:00 after we celebrated mom's birthday.

At 2pm, they went to the Vilseck train station, where they are so good and so nice. The overnight connections would've required 6-7 train changes in order to get in early enough for Carrie to catch the morning flight. So the woman told them they needed to leave at 2:34, which was 20 minutes notice. They called me at my office phone. I was so sad not to be able to say goodbye, but I was in the middle of a family of four childrens eye exams.

I started to see one of the boys again, and then stopped, and asked the mom if she'd mind if I was gone for 20-30 minutes to say goodbye and drop some things off. She said, "Just go! You were so nice and didn't say anything when we were late."

So I sped off for the train station, and arrived about ten minutes later. They were still waiting. I ran up and gave them hugs. My mom said, "How'd you get here this fast?" We were all crying and five minutes later, they were gone.

I just hope they make their flights in Amsterdam. The Nuremberg airport is small, the planes tiny. And for the last few days, they'd just been sitting at home trying to figure out how to get on an earlier flight, and whether or not their flights would even leave...

So I came home to an empty house. A birthday cake with "H-ash-py Birthday Mutti!" and no slices out of it. Should I light candles and blow them out for mom?

It was a weird month... starting with Carrie and my crazy drive through Croatia war zone, to mom and Carrie getting so sick for a week, to Grandma suddenly dying, and then the volcano canceling their flights... Why was I surprised when they almost had to leave without saying goodbye?

I will just say I am so happy they came and spent a month with me. I am so happy that I was given my family in this life. It was wonderful to have them. I hope the rest of their travels go without a hitch.