What a Weekend

This past weekend was completely unforgettable. About 6 months ago I found out that Time Out for Women was coming to Australia. Unfortunately though it was only coming to Sydney, which is of course on the other side of the country. I have previously been to two other TOFW events (one in Boise and one in Vegas) and LOVED every second of it so I really wanted to go to this one. We have just had so much going on lately that we haven't really had time to catch our breaths, so Jonathan and I talked about it and decided that for my push present/Mother's Day present I should go to Sydney, have a breather and attend TOFW (I love my husband!!!). I have been looking forward to it for so long. I have had the plane tickets and accommodation booked for months and this weekend it finally came!! My Mum and a friend of hers were also attending so the plan was that they would fly over at Friday lunchtime, I would wait for Jonathan to get home from work, take Ashleigh with me and leave him with Julianna and I would catch the midnight flight and meet up with my mum on the Saturday morning.

I spent all day Friday getting myself and Ashleigh organised. I put Julianna in bed that night (had a little cry because I already missed her) and left for the airport around 10.45pm. When I got to the airport I didn't quite realise how far away the long term parking was away from the terminal so by the time I parked, got myself, Ashleigh and our things together and made it to the terminal I was running a little late. I still managed to make it though and got onto the plane without any dramas. When I got onto the plane I was a bit nervous about how Ashleigh would be during the flight but she actually settled right away and was fast asleep before we even taxied out of the terminal. I settled in for the long flight and away we went.

We taxied out of the terminal and then went to the end of the runway. We waited there while the plane started up it's engines and got ready to take off. Just as we were about to leave the engines died down and the announcement came over the speaker, "I'm sorry but unfortunately there is too much fog around the airport for us to leave the ground, we are going to have to go back to the terminal." The plane parked and we were all asked to gather up our belongings and disembark the plane. After hours of waiting for the fog to clear our flight was cancelled. I then had to wait in line for hours to get credit for my flight. I left the airport the next morning, the same time that I should have been landing in Sydney. After being up all night I went home and got into bed. I couldn't believe what had happened!!

I was so bitter about the whole thing until I thought about it the next day. I remember a scene from the movie "The Other Side of Heaven", where they are in a small sail boat in the middle of the ocean and suddenly the wind dies and they are left stranded. I remembered what someone on the boat said about how although they were praying for wind to carry them in one direction, someone else in the world may also be praying for wind to be blowing in the other direction. It made me think that although I really hated the fog that night, maybe it was a Godsend for someone else and maybe they needed it a little more than I did.