It could have been worse

On our flight from Dallas to Hong Kong the pilot told us he needed to make an unexpected landing in Seoul South Korea to repair some restroom issues. At that point, we had been on that plane for fourteen hours so the last thing we wanted was more delays.

After a couple of hours, the plane was good to go, and two hours later we landed in Hong Kong. Luckily, we didn’t miss our connection because we had a long lay over in Hong Kong anticipating this sort of thing happening again since once we missed our connection on New Year’s Day and had to spend it at the airport. 

We boarded the plane one last time to come to Manila when we learned that there was a Tropical storm so the pilot needed to wait and wait and wait for what it seemed like forever.  I had not showered for almost two days and had not slept either. (We fly economy) I wanted to come home to my bed and feel clean again. I had changed into new clothes but that wasn’t enough. Finally, we made it home! Here we are, safe and sound.

The first thing I did was to give thanks to my Heavenly Father for all the many blessings and promised him I wouldn’t complain. Imagine if the plane had landed in North Korea and not South Korea and taken us hostage? Or if the malfunction was more than just those two bathrooms? Imagine if a Yolanda type typhoon had hit the Philippines and especially, Manila the way those Typhoons have done before etc. So many variables that could potentially have gone wrong that didn’t and not only that but everything on our trip was perfect!

These are some examples:

The highlight of our home leave this year was to meet the two newest members of our family. Baby Nico born to Lexi and Ale and we knew that while we were in town Sydney would most likely give birth to grandbaby number 17 which made this past trip extra special. It is wonderful to think that two new members were added to the grandchildren list this year, a boy and a girl and it doesn’t get better than that! We are so grateful that both deliveries went well and those babies are Perfect!

Another highlight of our trip was to do four mini family reunions in four different cities: Salt Lake, Miami, Rocha, Uruguay and Denver. We could see 8 out of 10 children and 16 out of 17 grandchildren. When we planned our home leave, we knew that we would make two extra trips to Miami and Denver.

We were not sure if we would make it to Uruguay to attend Nico’s wedding but we are glad we did. Daniel saw his mom who has been having health challenges and his siblings. They went to the cemetery to put a special plaque on Daniel’s father’s grave site. Daniel got to spend one more Father’s Day since in Uruguay it was on July 16^th and he got to see old friends too at Nico’s wedding which considering that it was winter and it could get very cold, that Saturday felt like Summer, there was sunshine and the whole wedding from start to finish was perfect!

This time Herni and family couldn’t make it to Utah in July but they are coming in December. Yay! FYI, we got plane tickets leaving Manila on Dec. 9^th and returning on the 29^th We wished we had time to make it to Ireland which was the original plan for 2017 but we will figure something out next time. Other than missing Hernan, Rachael, Owen and Gabe and Danae, we got to see everyone else including my mom and sisters and nephews who drove from Orlando to Miami and for that we are so grateful. We got so much done while we were on home leave, it was like running a marathon!

People say, you guys need a vacation after your vacation but I must remind everyone that home leave is not meant to be a vacation. It is meat to take care of business and doctors and taxes, and so many other appointments that we don’t do for a whole year while we live over seas. That is why it’s call a “home leave” If there were some things we didn’t do on this home leave they would have to wait for next time.

For next year, we are saving our $$ to do something special as a family so start saving your $$ and for 2019 it will be even more amazing because it’s going to be our 10^th wedding anniversary but wait, for 2020 abuela Nela turns 90 and mami Gloria turen 80 and that will be even more epic!!! No matter what, the next three years are just simply going to be wonderful. I can feel it!

Con amor,

Vero