Flying alone to Korea, at least I only have one child.
Landon and I finally arrive in Seoul yesterday afternoon after a 4.5 hour flight to San Francisco and a 12 hour flight to Seoul. Alone. The whole week before we left, Landon was sick as a dog with a fever and nasty cough. I finally took him to the doctor when his fever didn't go away, and she diagnosed him with pneumonia and advised us not to travel. The only problem was that there was a good chance I would have to delay another 2 weeks because of the company policy, and by that point, Austin would probably be coming back soon, so Landon and I would end up stranded in America. She said at the very least not to fly with him if he had a fever. Well, I was very conflicted. I didn't want him to spread his germs, and I especially didn't want him to have some sort of respiratory attack on a plane flying over the ocean. I was crying and heart broken that Landon would not get to see Austin as soon. Well, after a good cry, I prayed about what I should do. I asked for my son to be healed of his illness so that we could fly, and to let me know if it was a good idea to fly or not. My answer was to have Landon get a Priesthood blessing by our hometeachers* and that Landon would be fine on the flights.
* Home teachers are men and Priesthood holders in our church that look after us and help us out when we need help. It was great to be able to ask them for help with this in our time of need, especially since Austin was not around to help this time. The Priesthood is the authority to act in God's name. It is given to all worthy male members of our church so that they can be God's "hands" on earth to bless all of His spirit children.
It was odd to have such a feeling of anxiety, stress, and dismay melt away as I was reassured by my Heavenly Father that He knows me, hears my prayers, and wants me to be happy. After Landon received the blessing, he refused to go down for his afternoon nap and instead spent the afternoon climbing all over everything that he could find. He was markedly better in such a short period of time, far faster than the antibiotics can knock out the sickness. His fever was gone and I resumed packing with a "helper" that unpacked everything I packed :).
Flying alone for 18 hours with a toddler is not something I would endorse or recommend, but I survived. The first flight was 4.5 hours to San Francisco. We got on the airplane and I realized I had been looking at 2 different tickets when I thought our seats were together. They weren't together, so I waited with Landon's carseat, blanket (that didn't fit in our checked bags), his bag, my bag, and a food bag at the back of the airplane while Landon wandered around the back seats of the aircraft while the nice flight attendant tried to get people to switch seats so we could be together. The first guy she asked refused, but another guy volunteered and so Landon and I had seats together. Not only that, but the guy she asked sat right in front of Landon, so he was free to kick the back of his seat the entire flight! I tried to stop him, but that's just what Landon wanted to do on that flight. Our flight left at 7:00. That meant Landon got up quite a few hours earlier than normal and I was expecting him to sleep on the flight. He did not fall asleep until we landed. As we taxied, I was trying to wake him up and was mildly successful. I definitely need help getting on and off the plane with all of our stuff and a crying baby who did not want to walk down the aisle. I even binged this guy on the head with the car seat, and then apologized profusely. Fun day.
At this point, I realized that our seats for the flight to Inchon were not together either. and we were supposed to board in 15 minutes. I raced to the international terminal and gave my tickets to the gate agent and got them working on that. Then there were mechanical difficulties and we didn't actually leave for another hour. We got seats together and Landon played for awhile before the next flight.
The flight to Inchon was long, and I got soaked with water from water bottles at least twice, and Landon once. He napped without pants while they were drying. It was a 747 so there weren't individual screens and there was no control over what we watched, so it was good that Landon was in the middle and couldn't see anyway, but man those screens are nice. Also, our bank of lights was not working in the middle of the plane, so it was very dark for most of the flight, which made it so Landon either could play with his tablet or sleep. It was hard to see books and coloring materials and all the other things that I had packed. Oh well. We did get chocolate gelato so that made everything better. Landon was sleeping during both meal services but I got food for him anyway for when he woke up because he has a sudden aversion to baby food pouches which is basically what I packed for him. The flight attendant called me a hungry mamma. Oh well.
Everything was better when we got there and Austin picked us up in his fancy Sonata that he gets to drive to work. He doesn't really have it any other times, so we are getting really used to the subway- which is clean and safe and lovely.
* Home teachers are men and Priesthood holders in our church that look after us and help us out when we need help. It was great to be able to ask them for help with this in our time of need, especially since Austin was not around to help this time. The Priesthood is the authority to act in God's name. It is given to all worthy male members of our church so that they can be God's "hands" on earth to bless all of His spirit children.
It was odd to have such a feeling of anxiety, stress, and dismay melt away as I was reassured by my Heavenly Father that He knows me, hears my prayers, and wants me to be happy. After Landon received the blessing, he refused to go down for his afternoon nap and instead spent the afternoon climbing all over everything that he could find. He was markedly better in such a short period of time, far faster than the antibiotics can knock out the sickness. His fever was gone and I resumed packing with a "helper" that unpacked everything I packed :).
Flying alone for 18 hours with a toddler is not something I would endorse or recommend, but I survived. The first flight was 4.5 hours to San Francisco. We got on the airplane and I realized I had been looking at 2 different tickets when I thought our seats were together. They weren't together, so I waited with Landon's carseat, blanket (that didn't fit in our checked bags), his bag, my bag, and a food bag at the back of the airplane while Landon wandered around the back seats of the aircraft while the nice flight attendant tried to get people to switch seats so we could be together. The first guy she asked refused, but another guy volunteered and so Landon and I had seats together. Not only that, but the guy she asked sat right in front of Landon, so he was free to kick the back of his seat the entire flight! I tried to stop him, but that's just what Landon wanted to do on that flight. Our flight left at 7:00. That meant Landon got up quite a few hours earlier than normal and I was expecting him to sleep on the flight. He did not fall asleep until we landed. As we taxied, I was trying to wake him up and was mildly successful. I definitely need help getting on and off the plane with all of our stuff and a crying baby who did not want to walk down the aisle. I even binged this guy on the head with the car seat, and then apologized profusely. Fun day.
At this point, I realized that our seats for the flight to Inchon were not together either. and we were supposed to board in 15 minutes. I raced to the international terminal and gave my tickets to the gate agent and got them working on that. Then there were mechanical difficulties and we didn't actually leave for another hour. We got seats together and Landon played for awhile before the next flight.
The flight to Inchon was long, and I got soaked with water from water bottles at least twice, and Landon once. He napped without pants while they were drying. It was a 747 so there weren't individual screens and there was no control over what we watched, so it was good that Landon was in the middle and couldn't see anyway, but man those screens are nice. Also, our bank of lights was not working in the middle of the plane, so it was very dark for most of the flight, which made it so Landon either could play with his tablet or sleep. It was hard to see books and coloring materials and all the other things that I had packed. Oh well. We did get chocolate gelato so that made everything better. Landon was sleeping during both meal services but I got food for him anyway for when he woke up because he has a sudden aversion to baby food pouches which is basically what I packed for him. The flight attendant called me a hungry mamma. Oh well.
Everything was better when we got there and Austin picked us up in his fancy Sonata that he gets to drive to work. He doesn't really have it any other times, so we are getting really used to the subway- which is clean and safe and lovely.
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