My Kids Will be Traveling Alone For the First Time!

Next week my two youngin’s will be leaving to visit their dad on the East Coast. Shoshie is 13 and Noah is 12. It will be the first time EVER that they will be traveling alone by plane to go anywhere. Just to share how neurotic I am about my kids and the airport, I drove them crazy constantly looking for them when we were on our way out to New Mexico. Every two seconds I was looking up, looking around, scanning people in the crowd, taking mental notes of those who stood in close proximity to my children. I’m a basket case! Forget when Noah has to go to the bathroom at the airport…I make him go into the ladies bathroom (which he hates) and he either has to go in with me or with Shoshie.

I have always kept a very watchful eye over my kids when we travelled anywhere, and now that they will be traveling alone, I’m FREAKED OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They will be en route for 7 1/2 hours and have to get on two different airplanes. Three hours for the first flight, an hour wait time between flights and then finally boarding the second plane to complete the journey. I had all these things running through my mind over the last month as I knew I would have to purchase the tickets for them to fly; plane crashes, flight delays for hours, perverts in the bathrooms, stalkers trailing them from one gate to another, weirdos on the plane trying to touch them in the next seat…you name it, and I have that scenario playing in my head. Are my fears unfounded? Uh, NO! There have been young girls molested on airplanes, boys touched in bathrooms, strangers giving the “look” to small children. Some of which I have witnessed myself as I was traveling with my kids. Some weirdos don’t seem to care that an adult is present with the child…so what do you do when you aren’t there to protect or shield them? At one point on our way to New Mexico, we were in between flights and since the kids were hungry, we stopped in a pizza shop. I was sitting at the table with Simmi while Shoshie and Noah went up to get some pizza. At the next table over from us, was a man sitting there ogling Shoshie as she stood in line. She was unaware that this man was looking at her in a manner that was totally unacceptable. I don’t stand for that shit, especially since he didn’t care that I was sitting right there. In that moment, this pissed off bald mama stood to her feet, and walked over to the man and stood there very angry just staring at him. I stood there until he turned around in his seat and stopped looking at her. I am sure that it was unnerving to have a furious bald chick that was nearly unhinged staring him down. I said not one word to him…I just stood there staring at him. He got the point. He never looked at her again. By the time Shoshie turned around, I was already back in my seat and she had no idea what had just transpired. These are the things I think about as my kids travel alone.

Noah and Shoshie are great kids, with good heads on their shoulders. I have full confidence in their ability to travel and I know that they are so excited about going. Since they are under the age of 16, I have to pay an unaccompanied minor fee. This fee covers the cost of one of the flight crew members assisting the kids from one terminal to another so they can get on their next flight. A month ago, I didn’t know about this cool feature. I couldn’t imagine the two of them flying into an airport and having to find the next terminal alone, so I waited till I had enough money just in case I needed to take a flight with them to the halfway point and then turn around and come home. There was no way I was going to allow them to just “find their way” to the next plane. Luckily American Airlines assured me that they will not be left alone at anytime during the whole flight. The cost of this fee is around $150.00 and it covers everything round trip.

They are so excited to go back to the east coast and see their dad and his fiancee and all their friends (credit for the picture of the two of them goes to their future mom! Is that picture of them awesome or what?). They are counting down the days right now, making plans and lists of all the stuff they are gonna do. They are so excited…and of course, I am a wreck! My stomach turns every time they mention the flight. I can’t help it, but I know I will be fine once they have landed and they are safely delivered into the arms of their father.

Bald Beauty of the Day

Beggars Can’t be Choosers…Right?

A friend of mine has been asking me to tell her what I need since we have lost everything due to our mold issue. Then another friend did the same, and was trying to encourage me to put a list together of what my family needs. I felt completely vulnerable (still do) about expressing our needs, and over the last few days, I decided to actually make a list. When I first started the list, I got about part of the way through, and looked at how massive it was…got scared and deleted the post that I was working on. I felt foolish making this list because there is a part of me that still believes the old saying “Beggars Can’t be Choosers.” I grappled with the idea of creating a “wish list” registry that all our family and friends can view to cut down on my own personal awkwardness around explaining what we need, but plowed through those feelings and actually signed up at Amazon.com and created my “Wish List” there. I have been busy compiling my list, and as I do so, my stomach is twisted and turning in anxiety over actually picking things out that we need replaced for a new home. I feel gnawed to the core at the reality of the situation and filled with a sadness that we won’t be able to get all these things.

When my kids came home from school yesterday, they saw me compiling my list online and they wanted to be included in the process. Together we looked at the things they needed, and I could see this glimmer of hope and joy in their eyes, as if they were seeing some sort of relief, and I didn’t know how to explain that this is our “wish list” but it doesn’t mean that we are going to get everything right away.  I didn’t want their expectations to take over and in the end be even more crushed. We have lost everything, and we had to make some very difficult decisions for the sake of our health and well being not to take a single thing with us. We have been through this one time before, and it really doesn’t get any easier when if it happens again…especially with children. It hurts me to the core to need to get rid of all the things that they hold dear, but our health trumps all else in this case.

Another part of the dilemma I had with creating a list was having others look at that list and say “What? Do they really need that?” LOL To put a list out there is to open myself and my family up to the judgements of others. I found myself sitting at the computer, going through furniture, household items, exact items the children are upset about losing…like their computers, musical instruments, cell phones, video games, and other things that they may have gotten at Christmas or on their birthday and shrinking back from putting those things on the list and looking for cheaper items.

Our needs are so great, the list is extensive…and I haven’t even finished completing it. It will take me another day or two to finish it and then to post it for family and friends. I pray I have the strength to post it, and that for my family’s sake, I don’t back out at the last moment because I fear the judgement of others. I have even thought of posting the information to this blog site, but I haven’t made a decision yet about it.

We bumped up our move to December 12th because of the mold test results. We are renting a temporary home that is fully furnished until we find an area in New Mexico that we like and then ultimately find a home that we can settle into.