The rest of September went by soooooo quickly! I had my hands full with our two beautiful girls and was still adjusting to being a parent of two. We did enjoy the extra time to be with friends and family in the US and the extra few weeks also gave us the opportunity to tweak Olivia's reflux meds until we found what worked best for her. We sure did miss Daddy though!
Savannah had the opportunity to participate in our Shreveport church's Mother's Day Out program. Three days a week she had a wonderful opportunity to spend time with other preschoolers and do fantastic activities. She absolutely LOVED her teachers and her class! She was always ready to go to school and I was so thankful for her to have an extra outlet. This time also gave me the opportunity to try to settle into a more predictable groove with Olivia. :) Here she is on the first day of "school."
Olivia and I both got sick several times during the month with a stomach virus first and then a cold/sinus bug. This made life a bit interesting, but through it all our little girl was a fighter! Once everyone was feeling better we spent lots of time just hanging out together.
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| A Monitor Shot: Savannah decided to ride around her bedroom on the scooter instead of staying in bed. Couldn't resist snapping a picture! |
Remember how I said the month was busy?? Yea, those are the only pictures I took on my camera almost the entire month!
As September drew to a close, I spent the last few days of the month getting ready to go back to Saudi. The girls and I were scheduled to fly out on October 2nd so I started trying to pack a week and a half in advance. After living in Shreveport for three months, it took a lot of time and effort to "uproot" all of our stuff and get it back into suitcases and boxes. I was amazed at how LONG it took me to get everything together and how much stuff we had to get back. Packing to return to Saudi is a persnickity thing because the goal is to utilize every pound of suitcase space that you have! It becomes a puzzle of sorts where you have to try different packing arrangements. Sometimes you pack a suitcase until there is no space left in it, but when you weigh it it's only 30 lbs. That means there is 20 lbs of unused luggage allowance, and let me tell you those pounds are GOLDEN! Think of all of the rotel cans, cream of golden mushroom soup, shoes, and other items that you can't get in Saudi! Since I'm already slightly OCD about things I spent lots of time trying to maximize our space and was literally still getting things together and arranged up until five minutes before we left for Houston. Whew! One large box, three large suitcases, 1 duffle bag, 2 carry-on's, 2 car seats, and 1 double stroller later we were ready to go to Houston!
We decided to go to my grandfather's house the night before our flight to help break up the trip and give us the opportunity to see Pawpaw. We had a great time visiting with sweet Pawpaw and letting him meet Olivia. Believe it or not, I ended up rearranging my suitcase stuff again because I realized I had one bag that was over- I told you I was OCD, remember.
Finally the day of our flight came, so we loaded up ourselves and all of our stuff and headed toward the airport. We had to stop by CP Chem's headquarters to pick up Olivia's passport because her Saudi visa had just come through. Unfortunately when I got to HQ, they couldn't locate her passport at first. Talk about your heart skipping a beat- we were supposed to leave in less than three hours! After ten minutes or so they were able to find it and we were on our way. It ended up raining the entire way to the airport so once we arrived I knew I was going to be running short on time. Once I got us checked in, we had to say very quick goodbyes to my sweet parents and then get through security to our gate.
Ten minutes after we arrived at the gate we started boarding the plane. We always fly KLM and they are great about letting families board the plane first to get settled before everyone else gets on. As the other passengers were boarding I happened to look up and see an old friend from college walking down the aisle!!! I couldn't believe that she was going to be on our flight- small world! She is a flight attendant and was on her way to Europe to work a series of flights over there for a few weeks. It was such a blessing to see my friend Katie!!! Seeing her helped ease a lot of the nervous energy and apprehension I had about flying by myself with a seven week old and a two year old!
Our seats were on the bulkhead which was great because it allowed Olivia to be in a bassinet once we were in the air. KLM's service is always fantastic, and this trip was no exception. The flight attendant that was assigned to our section was a godsend! She took the liberty to move the kind couple that was sitting next to us to new seats further up the plane so that the girls and I could have the fourseater to ourselves. THIS WAS HUUUUUUGGGGGGE! It allowed Savannah to lay across the seats comfortably when she went to sleep. God bless that sweet woman who took pity on us!
Olivia was awake for the first four hours of the flight or so. Once she fell asleep she was out for the rest of the flight. Savannah fell asleep about six hours into the flight, then slept two and a half, then woke up once they started meal service. Did I mention that she didn't take a nap that day either? My poor little munchkin was not a happy camper as you can imagine! After she cried for five minutes, I got her to calm down and helped her get comfortable again. I was able to get about a hour to an hour and a half of sleep on the first flight, so I was pooped too (keep in mind I didn't have a good sleep reserve to begin with since I had a 7 week old).
When we finally arrived in Amsterdam, I thanked the good Lord for getting us through the flight with very little trouble and was ready to see Brent. My kind husband agreed to meet us halfway in Amsterdam to help get us back to Saudi. When we got off of the plane, I had to wait for our stroller to be brought up. One of the flight attendants was helping me by holding Savannah (who was crying because she was so tired), and we looked down and could see Brent at the end of the jetway. Unfortunately because of security he couldn't walk down to meet us and I had to stay until the stroller came. The kind flight attendant offered to walk Savannah down to Brent and let me tell you it was a Kodak moment. The minute that Savannah saw her daddy, she jumped into his arms and was the happiest two year old in the world! Those tears turned to smiles that lasted the rest of the day!
Our layover in Amsterdam was about four and a half hours so we were able to go to the lounge, get some food, and relax. Savannah was entranced with Brent and wanted to spend all of her time with Daddy. Olivia slept almost the entire time, which was a blessing! I was able to catch a few z's and felt so much better afterwards.
Our flight to Dammam, Saudi Arabia was so much easier with Brent's help! He kept Savannah occupied and I took care of Olivia so we were both able to have down time at different points.
When we arrived in Saudi, we got through passport control and headed back to Jubail and our compound. It felt great to be home and have the trip behind us!
The next three days were a bit of a blur, but once the girls got over jet lag, and we got the bags unpacked we started trying to make our new routine here in Saudi.
