Death. To. Flights.

Okay. Prepare yourself for the worst story of my lifetime! Grab a chair (this will be a long one), and some tissues because you are either going to cry for me or laugh so hard you'll cry. Depends on whether you are a jerk or not.

So the morning I was supposed to leave for Bucharest I made Megann and Mitch get up EXTRA early so we would get to the airport in plenty of time to get me to the airport. We got to the Madrid airport with PLENTY of time to get me going. I bought my ticket online and they mailed me a paper ticket (raise your hand if you've seen one of those in 10 years... anyone...?) so I wanted to make sure I had tons of time to make sure there were no problems. See, once I got to Bucharest I was meeting the rest of the travel group to take a van to Barlad. They landed a little bit before me and were going to have the van loaded and ready to go so I had to be totally ready to just jump on the van when I landed.

So I'm at the airport and the lady at the check in counter says that I need to be in some other line because of my ticket and my flight and my line will open at 9:30. I asked her if that would be a problem because my flight took off at 10:15 and that sounded like it was cutting it close, but she quickly directed us to the other line. We waited in the other line for over an hour and when the pudgy Spanish man finally waddled behind the counter and put up the flight info... It wasn't my flight. I had been in the wrong line the whole time. This is where Amanda starts to sob. Uncontrollably. In the airport. So we freak out and find some lady who was standing there who tells me I'm pretty much screwed because my flight is closed and there is no way I can get there and I need to go back to the lady that told me that in the first place. So we run to the front of her line, leaving many angry Spaniards in our frantic wake, and she admits she made the mistake and tells me to take both of my bags as carry-on luggage and run for it. She makes me a quick boarding pass and gets a speedy security stamp and tells me to run.

And run I did. I was pulling the biggest one behind me and pushing the smaller one in front of me. I get to the security line and they rush me through but I have to chuck all of my liquids. Shampoo, conditioner, lotion, body wash, hair spray, everything. The security guy was nice enough to run them back to Meg and Mitch. I get down some ramp and realize I have to take a train to my terminal. Then I have to go through Passport control. Then I have to run down about 15 hallways STILL sobbing like a maniac, STILL carrying a month's worth of luggage. Needless to say when I got there... No plane.

THey directed me to the counter where they were nice enough to get me on the next flight, but I was in the airport realizing that I had no way to get from Bucharest to Barlad and no way to contact the group to tell them I wasn't going to be arriving at three. So at this point I did what any girl would do... I called my daddy in the middle of the night and asked him to fix it.

My poor dad gets a hysterical phone call in the middle of the night and has no idea how to help me! We finally decided that I could get to Bucharest and find a hotel and take a train in the morning. No one in their right mind wants to spend a night in Bucharest alone! I was totally freaked out with that solution but I was out of ideas. We talked about how to get ahold of the people and my dad decided he'd call the mission home and try to get ahold of our friends the Lundbergs who are the mission presidents in Bucharest and worked with the foundation and they could give us a number to let them know I'd be late.

So my dad calls as I'm boarding the plane and says "Laurie Lundberg will pick you up at the airport. She says dont worry and she will take complete care of you." I have never heard better words in all of my days. It was the first time in about 6 hours that I actually stopped crying.

Laurie and Scott and Joshua were there when I got off the plane and I immediately started crying yet again because I was so happy to see someone that spoke my language and was a familiar face that I trusted! THey took me to the mission home and fed me dinner and had the AP's physically walk me to my seat and ask the people in my car to make sure I got off in Barlad because I'd already missed my chance to get there once and I didn't want to miss it again! My train didnt leave until 11 which means I didn't even get to Barlad until 3:30 in the morning. Wonderful Sorin from the foundation had to get out of bed in the middle of the night to haul my butt and luggage to the hotel. I'm glad it takes the full force of the Church in Bucharest to get Amanda to a destination. Mercy.

Okay, this is really long and I am SO SO SORRY that I have not written about the kids! I know a lot of you are counting on that and I promise I will write soon. I had to get this story out of the way.

THe kids are amazing. I love them. I have so much to write but I am leaving Barlad on Friday and will try to write tomorrow when camp ends. I have so many great pictures and lots of really ugly ones (one where I look like Quazimoto the Hunchback) and so much to talk about but I will leave this story in all it's glory.

Love you all!I will see you soon!