On Friday night, my son returned home from Europe. This two week trip was the culmination of eleven months of anxious preparation. We signed him up last August, and ever since, we’ve been paying for the trip and counting down days. Oh, he was so excited when he left. I was excited for him - and I couldn’t wait to get emails from him along the way, sharing all kinds of stories about his trip.
That didn’t happen.
See, we thought there were going to be all kinds of Internet cafes everywhere he went. If there were, he didn’t find them.(or didn't look very hard!) No, for two weeks, all we got were two texts from friends’ phones and one short paragraph from Austria.
One was a request for more money.
So, I worried. I wondered what he was doing. I missed him. And then well, I started getting irritated. I mean, honestly, couldn’t he have tried just a little bit harder to contact us?
All those grumpy feelings gave way to sympathy last Friday night. He had the worst flight schedule. He flew from Prague to Frankfort to Washington, DC to Chicago to Cincinnati, arriving bright and shiny at midnight. (yawn!) Even that crazy schedule didn’t go as planned.
But we did get a phone call out of it.
He called at 4:30 am from Frankfort. “There’s a bomb scare, so they closed the terminal,” said in only the way a 17 year old can alternately ask for sympathy and inform us to not make a fuss. After that phone call, we started hearing from him a lot. He got out of Germany. Almost didn’t make it through customs in Washington. Oh…his plane was delayed in Chicago. Actually, it was really delayed.
Actually it was two hours late.
So, that’s how I ended up being at the Cincinnati airport at two in the morning last Friday night-er Saturday morning. Finally, at 2:15 a crowd of kids came out of the terminal-each looking more exhausted than the next. There, in the middle, was my son. Six inches taller than me. Looking tired but happy. "Hi Dad," he said, but I got the first hug.
I reached up, kissed his cheek, hugged him tight, and finally breathed a big sigh of relief.
My prodigal son had come back home.
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9 comments:
Oh, Shelley! I'll be you were pretty worried for awhile. I'm glad he's home safe and sound!
I bet you're so glad to have him home! And I bet he doesn't want to see a plane again anytime soon!
Did you sleep in on Saturday?
I hope that you got to get some rest Saturday. At least he kept you somewhat informed once he was on the way home. And I hope he learned a lot of interesting things on his trip and got to see a lot of Europe.
Hi Ann and Heather!
Yes, I was happy to have him home. It's been fun, every once in a while, we'll here another story-some of which were crazy. They lost one of the kids in the Paris subway for an hour!
Perhaps the lack of communication was meant to be. : )
And, Heather, yes, I did sleep in on Saturday. Until 10!
Shelley
Glad your son arrived home and you could stop worrying.
My son went to Europe for 2 weeks, and we didn't hear from him once. He was with a chaperoned group from school, so I knew if he wasn't OK I would have heard from someone. But STILL, it would have been nice to hear from him. He was too busy having a good time, and he did arrive home happy and safe! :)
Hey Shelley, I'm thankful your son returned home safe.
Our daughter spent 3 months in the back roads of India and 5 months in New Zealand. While in India, she emailed approx twice a week which was a surprise to us since it's such a poor country. We expected the same in NZ but it was not the case. We were lucky to get an email twice a month. She said in India, there was always either a cafe or library in every town or village. In NZ, she worked on organic farms and the hosts wouldn't let them have access to the 'net. On her one day off, she had to find a ride to the long drive in to the nearest town. By the time she did her laundry, and bought her incidentals, there wasn't much time left to find somewhere with the 'net. When she did, it was ten times the expense as it had been in India. Go figure.
She's back in Canada in another provinice and is taking a 2 yr massage therapy course. Guess what? She has the 'net in her apartment and we're lucky if we get an email from her once a month.
Kids!
Anita,
Gosh, you sound like a very experienced parent! I imagine next time one of our kids goes out of the country, we won't have so many expectations. That sure is interesting about India. Who would've thought?
Shelley
Ellen,
I don't know how much he learned, but he did enjoy meeting so many people from around the world! He's very sad right now..trip is over and reality has set in.
shelley
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