Traveling Internationally with Small Children

Would you like to know my number one tip for traveling with small kids? Don't do it unless you absolutely have to. :o) Oh the stories I have from our marathon trip home. I'll start with the week that we spent in a different country from where we were living. We flew there (through another country) and had planned to be there a week. The 2nd night we were there Luke started throwing up. We hoped it would pass quickly and that he would get over it. But he didn't. He kept throwing up about every 3 hours that next day. Then the 2nd night it was every hour. He kept on throughout the next day and by that time he had gotten really pale and his eyes looked sunken in. When he wasn't throwing up, he was asleep. So I was with him pretty much 24/7 while Daddy and the other two boys were occupied during the days. The the 3rd night we had and American doctor friend check him out again, (he'd been monitoring Luke along the way), and he said it was probably time to head to the hospital. Now, keep in mind that we're in a country where we don't really speak the language at all. Thankfully, a friend who does speak it went with Daddy and Luke to the hospital. They went through the emergency room and it took almost 3 hours before there were admitted to a room and got an IV in Luke's body. Finally he stopped throwing up! They said that he just had a virus, a highly contagious one at that. But the Lord totally protected the rest of our family from ever getting it. Thanks to all of you who were praying for us during that time! We are so thankful that the virus didn't spread. Luke was in the hospital over night and through the next afternoon. But when he got back to the place where we were staying, he looked SO much better! He was still very, very weak and couldn't really eat anything for a while, but he wasn't losing anything anymore and was on the mend. I'm glad that we decided to take him to the hospital when we did because he may have gotten too dehydrated if we had waited. We're also thankful for the great care he got in the hospital he went to. The hospitals where we had been living are not exactly of that caliber, so we're not really sure what we would have done if we had been in our overseas home. Thankfully we've never had to face that experience. Just being where we were with Luke so sick was scary enough. That's the sickest any of my kids has ever been. But the Lord's hand was on us and taking care of us through it all. He used many special people to see to our needs during that week. And thankfully Luke was okay by the time we needed to fly back to the U.S. He still wasn't eating much, but that's not really a problem on the airplane. It took him a full week before he was really ready to eat anything substantial. I think it took him longer than that just to get over the trauma of all that happened to him.

So, that was the week before we flew back to the U.S. We entered the 13 hour flight with high hopes that all throw up was over. Well... Luke was finished, but the other two, not so much. The flight itself wasn't that bad really because we each had our own little tv screen with good choices of things to watch. They even had Preschool Disney shows on there for Joshua and Luke, so it was all good. Until Joshua threw up. It was totally unexpected and not so pretty. I will spare the goriest of details and just say that the flight attendants were extremely gracious in helping us. After that we kept a watchful eye on Joshua and just started praying that he didn't have what Luke had. We go through the rest of the flight and everything seemed fine until it was time for the plane to land in the U.S. By this time, it's obvious to say that everyone was ready to get off the plane and that we were all pretty tired. So, as the plane was skidding down the runway, I was sitting on one side trying my best to keep Micah in his seat belt. Joshua was turning green, so Daddy was hovering over him with the barf bag in hand. And poor Luke had just had enough and was literally yelling at the top of his lungs that he had to go pee-pee. Daddy and I were both trying our best to calm Luke down and get him to stop screaming, but we already had our hands full and the whole situation was rather difficult. I'm sure we were quite the show for those around us, who were more than anxious to remove themselves from our presence. Poor Joshua did throw up again, but we were prepared, so it wasn't too bad. Once the plane landed, Daddy took Luke back to the restroom as I started gathering everything, keeping a watchful eye on Joshua to make sure he wasn't going to lose it again. Finally, everyone else is off the plane, and we're just sitting there waiting for Luke and Daddy. As they walk up, Micah totally, and completely unexpectedly, throws up everywhere. He had just had a big breakfast not 1 hour before, so it was very, very ugly. It was just a huge mess. Joshua coat was toast (he was not wearing it). At least it didn't get on the rest of our coats (remember that eventually we were to land in OK City where it was freezing). We finally get ourselves and our carry-ons off the plane and get out into the hallway where I'm doing everything I can to not burst into tears. It was quite the harrowing experience. We made it to a bathroom where we could get ourselves cleaned up a little bit better. Then after we went through customs, we actually had to pick up our luggage, so we were able to stash the throw-up nasty stuff (sealed in Ziploc bags) in the suitcase top pocket as well as replenish our extra-set-of-clothes for the carry on. It turned out that the boys did not have what Luke had, their sickness must have just been travel-induced. We are so grateful for that!

We did get to visit with a dear friend in that first U.S. airport. She brought us chicken nuggets which pretty much only Daddy and I could eat by that point. But it was great to see her, even in our crazy circumstances. We made it into OKC that night around midnight, then drove on to our home about 2 hours away. By the time we got to our home, after having slept the whole way in the van, the boys were quite alive and full of energy. We got to bed that morning around 5 am. Then ensued the week of family jet lag. Someone asked us how we were doing with jet lag and we said we didn't know because were dealing with our childrens' jet lag more than our own. We were all sleeping through the night completely within our first week, though, and never more happy to do so!

So much more has happened since we got home, but that will have to wait for another blog post... I'll do my best to get you caught up on everything!