So happy to be in his loving arms again

The kids and I made it back to Cairo last night.  The travels were full of ups and downs.

Ups:

- The kids were absolutely fantastic. Sprout was calm and helpful. Junebug was smiley and only cried once from utter fatigue, and that wouldn't have been much of a problem if it hadn't happened right during the meal service.

- Both on the ground and in the air, I met with very friendly staff who helped with problems. And one of J's colleagues was on the same flight, so he was able to help me with my carry-ons.

- I was a tad concerned that I would meet with problems since the person who booked our tickets used my maiden instead of married name, but the person who treated with me at the passport control point was none other than a colleague of J's from when we lived in Mayotte. So, not only did I have no problems, I got to catch up with an old friend.  Talk about good fortune smiling upon us.

Downs:

- I got to bed way too late Friday night Saturday morning and then had insomnia.  Traveling alone with a small child and infant is not the easiest thing to do after a night of good sleep and much less easy only only four hours shut-eye.  I woke at 5 a.m. feeling a bit queasy and knew I was in for it. I was able to stave off the worst of it until 2hrs out from Cairo. Then the nausea got bad enough that I had to sit with the sick bag in one hand, while holding Junebug with the other. Once we landed, I thought I had made it without throwing up, but it was not to be. I had to use the bag in front of everyone until I could get a flight attendant to hold Junebug so I could be sick in private in the lavatory.

- When J left France mid-July, the agent at the check-in counter asked where Junebug was. J said the baby was flying out with me in August, and that created a big mess because for some reason, even though Junebug's ticket was for 30 Aug, he was somehow on J's ticket.  The agent changed it, BUT! s/he also changed Junebug's last name to my maiden name!  What the frack. So that created a mess first thing in the morning. Good thing I believe in going early to the airport...even if it means getting up too early.

Best:

- Hugging my husband, however briefly because of the sick, after being apart for a month and a half.

Snippet Sunday

I was able to finish my watercolor of M and mail it and the one of her brother off before I headed back to Egypt.  I hope the grandparents like them.


Here are both of them together. I photographed them at different times on different days, so the colors are different, but I think they'll make a nice pair.



Sadly I didn't have time to do an oil painting of Sprout (yes, I can hear you cackling, frigg); that'll have to be a snippet for another Sunday. :P