One year ago today we left Minnesota for Athens, Greece; the trip that changed my life. 

We were headed on a 7-night Mediterranean cruise that I had earned for free through the network marketing company I was a part of. We were newbies to having passports and were beyond excited to get the party started.

Before I go any further, I need to let you in on some things that were going on behind the scenes… a lingering Air Canada strike.

Earlier in the week I saw a news article about a pilot strike with the airline we were flying to Greece with. We had contacted our travel agent and unfortunately any sort of change would cost us upward of $2,000. The strike, if not negotiated beforehand, was to go in effect at midnight on September 15…just 6 hours after our flight from Montreal to Athens was scheduled to leave.

So all we could do was pray. And worry lol… loooooots of worry.

Thanks to the jetlag app we downloaded, September 14 started bright and early at 2:15am. Because we would be on a plane or in an airport for the rest of the day, we took the opportunity to take my daily walk outside so I didn’t break my streak.

We arrived at MSP stupid early (kinda on purpose but actually an hour earlier than I thought) and the next few hours were spent sitting and, you guessed it, worrying. 

I wasn’t nervous about our flight to Montreal. That was quick and easy. We made it in time to have an airport lunch at Subway and I took it upon myself to try a Canada only bag of Lay’s. They weren’t memorable, but were pretty good. 

Then came the long waiting. We had about 6 or so hours until our boarding time. I used my time very wisely: I binged the first season of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. Jourdan did a lot of walking around (it’s not a very big airport tbh) and trying to get the Michigan football game to play (but alas, we were in another country).

About 30 mins before boarding, we were told that the AC wasn’t working on board and they were trying to fix it. While it was a quick delay, it pushed us back about an hour and the closer the clock ticked to midnight (and the looming strike), the worse my anxiety got. 

This picture was taken when we finally boarded the plane. Happy campers! We were on our way!!!

And then we sat on that freaking tarmac for almost 3 hours.

The longest 3 hours of my liiiiiife!!! (and yes, I’m also counting the 2 hours that I tried pushing Evelyn out of my body before she was born).

I swear I’ve never prayed so hard in my life. I cried. I swore. I tried to box breathe. I did my best to be calm. 

I was anything but. 

As the minutes inched toward midnight (and still no news of an agreement), the more I was convinced that we were never going to get to Athens. We’d miss the boat and this dream trip that I had worked so hard to be on would not come to fruition. I was so sick to my stomach with anxiety.

I literally burst into body-convulsing happy tears when the pilot came on around 9pm and said, “ladies and gentleman, we have been cleared for takeoff.”

I honestly didn’t feel any peace until we were halfway across the Atlantic Ocean and there was no point in turning back around. 

We would be in Athens in just a few (okay 9) hours. What a freaking miracle.

Come back tomorrow for Day 2…