Trials at 40,000 feet

Since we're passing the 6 month mark with Max, I thought it would be fun to tell you a story. Some of you have heard the story about our flight to bring Max home. For those of you who haven't, you're in for a treat.
Enjoy.

Most of you know that I have 3 other children, and have logged many thousands of miles traveling with multiple children, so I thought an eight hour plane ride with just one seven year old child was a no brainer. We got toys. We got snacks. We got in flight movies. And I was so positive that after being awake for as long as this child had been, he would surely log a good 6 hour nap.

So you know what happens when you try to fly with a 7 year old who has been in and out of orphanages his entire life, who has a very fragile relationship with his new parents, and is clearly terrified right? He didn't want any fruit snacks. Or transformers. And sleep was pretty much out of the question.
Somewhere around hour number four I started to feel like locking him in the bathroom was an excellent strategy for making it through the rest of the flight.

At that four hour mark He and I had both been awake for nearly 24 hours. He had shredded all the plastic silverware I could find. Pulled the earbuds off his in-flight headphones and insisted we go find the toilet during meal time. Twice. All the while yelling at me in a language I didn't understand. My husband? Sound asleep, completely oblivious to the cannon ball of a boy sitting between us.

At that 4 hour mark I, the seasoned mother of three, I mean four, was done. Done praying that things would get better, that the plane would blessedly crash and we could all go meet Jesus. Or that Jesus would choose that moment to come back in a blaze of glory. I was at rock bottom. Like I've never seen it before and hope to never see again.

I have never felt hopelessness like I did in those moments in seat 25D. I hope to never feel that way again. But those are the moments where God spoke to my soul. Words of strength and courage.

This is only temporary.

This trial will be over in the blink of an eye.

No dice on that blaze of glory you were hoping for earlier, but that doesn't mean I'm not here. I got your back on this one.

I'd like to say that little pep talk changed the way my new son responded to his environment, but it didn't. The second half of the flight was just as miserable as the first half. It did, however change my perspective on the situation. That was all I needed to make it safely off the plane. 

All trials are temporary. Some take hours to work through, some take decades. But they are all temporary. And before you know it, they'll be over. The plane will land, the sun will shine.
And you'll be a better you because of it.

Oh hey! don't forget about tomorrow's Abide in Him wall art giveaway. You want to win this! I promise~

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