If my dying cellphone alarm hadn't gone off this morning at 6:45am, Steph and I wouldn't have woken up. Somehow, the room call at 6:30am didn't go through. I remember looking at the last bar on my phone last night, debating whether to turn it off our set it just in case. The just in case was what woke us.
Exhausted, and saying we could sleep until noon, we climbed out of our Miami Hotel beds and wearing the same clothes as the day before, we made our way down to the lobby to meet the others for 7am. Today was smooth sailing, we thought. Today was when we made it to Haiti. You think we didn't learn...
Upon getting into the elevator, we met up with Elaine and Susan. One of their party was missing.
“She's not coming,” Elaine told us. “She just couldn't handle it.”
After all the running around the previous day – the flight cancellations and delays, stories of life in Haiti, Leslie had booked a flight back home. We were one passenger down.
Dorothy Heron was waiting for us in the lobby and soon after, Caleb and Don Baurer arrived. That's strange. We were still missing Vic Heron and his nephew Jonathan Morasse. They have always been the timely people, and Vic had all the flight itinerary.
With puzzled looks, and still thinking about losing Leslie, Dorothy headed to the counter of the Airport Hotel and enquired about the two.
“There is no one here by that name.”
“What?!”
“We don't have anyone here by that name.” The lady repeated.
Steph and I had been right in front of the two men when we checked in the previous night. The hotel had had us all booked at the airport motel and the booking lady had even remarked at how many open room there was. We'd even seen them walk up to the counter and begin the process as we grabbed our room keys and sauntered in a sleepy delirium over to the elevators. It was 7am, and nothing was going as planned.
The cellphones came out and Don begin to try and call Vic. No answer. Again. No answer.
We decided to head over to the check in. We had one hour to do so before the checking closed at 8:20am. “You arrive there at 8:21am”, the airport lady told us, “and you won't be let in.”
We figured that Vic and Jonathan were so timely, that maybe if they had stayed at another hotel and were running late, they were already headed over to check in. But the very fact that they would stay somewhere else, didn't make sense. The second thing that didn't appear characteristic was that they didn't contact anyone, or leave a note of the new arrangements.
Realizing that our adventure wasn't anywhere near finished, that our plans were not God's plans, that when God said each day is anew day He didn't say each day would be a normal day, we rushed over around the Miami airport you to the check-in counter.
Don Baurer took out his passport, presenting it to the attendant at Air France. She typed in the name and waited, a confused look crossing her face.
“I'm sorry, sir. There is nobody reserved under that name.” She checked again and then motioned for him to move over to another desk in the room.
Dorothy figured she'd check her reservation and us four remaining ladies followed. Somehow we had made the flight, but Don and Caleb hadn't.
“I'm sorry,” she said. “The flight is packed. This wasn't happening. Five ladies weren't flying on their own to Haiti with two men pushed off the flight, two men missing and half the group over in New York. Steph and I took a quick prayer break – acknowledging God's control in everything and asking for glory to be brought to His name.
Don wasn't going to wait around and let the attendants keep him in Miami. The next minute he walked over with Caleb and presented the new tickets. Turned out the flight wasn't so “packed”. We would be able to fly together.
One glance at the time showed that there was 36 minutes for the missing Vic and Jonathan to arrive. After that, the gate would be closed and who knows when they would be able to get there...who knows where they were!
We sat down on the cold floor next to a pillar in the airport. Don went back to the airport hotel to call the desk workers from the previous night in order to find out where Vic and Jonathan were. Susan went back to retrieve her Montreal-NY ticket she had left in her room. It held her baggage claim stickers and she figured, although it was a minor set-back, she might as well solve that problem while the bigger problem was being battled.
Waiting, praying, and perhaps wondering what God was up to, but learning to trust Him, we waited.
At 15 minutes remaining, Steph spotted him.
“Jonathan!” He was walking towards us from a distance, clearly in a hurry. In pursuit was Vic, hair still sticking up atop of his head. They looked like they had just gotten up.
“There was no room call this morning!” explained Vic. “I woke up at 7:56 and we were down in 3 minutes!”
“What? You were in the hotel?”
“Yes...”
There wasn't much time to explain, as we rushed to security, emptying out our water bottles and hoping to have time to use our new 21$ food vouchers on the other side. Somehow the hotel communication system had broken down within the past seven hours. Room calls for alarms hadn't been made and nobody at the desk seemed aware of the guests staying on floor six. Good to know there was a Higher Power who was aware.
We cheered and laughed and shook our head. God just seems to get us every time with this plan of His. We might make it to Haiti today. Who knows.
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