Adoptivus: The Flood

I've dorkily started a personal celebration called "Adoptivus" that leads up to Family Day. The only person who celebrates it is me, but I love reminiscing about that amazing and surreal time in our lives.

Where do I get to have my personal celebration? On my blournal! I thought it would be fun to preserve one memory from each of our days, something we hadn't blogged about or put in a video diary.

On September 13, 2008, Appa and I "woke up" (I use the term loosely because I remember getting very little sleep) to a torrential rainstorm. I hate flying and usually am an internal mess before flights, but I was so keyed up I barely cared about the rain. We had planned to get there 3 hours early....plenty of time.

It was clear before we even got out of our neighborhood that this was no ordinary storm. Water was pooling in the roadways. Less than a mile from our house a major road was already flooded and closed.

What did I do? I whipped out my camera and started taking pictures for the novelty of it all. Nothing was going to rain on this almost-a-mama's airport parade!

Then the radio announced that our major airport was flooding and closed. Even the off ramps from the interstate were closing.

CLOSED. As in, we could not get within a mile of the place.

Oh, flights were still leaving, especially the international ones, but unless you were already there....there was no way for you to get in.

The next 2 HOURS were a navigational feat to behold. Appa's aunt was getting on and off any open ramp she could just to keep us circling in the vicinity of the airport. We had our laptop open and people on the phone trying to figure out mass transit ways for us to get into the airport (those were all closed, too).

The whole time the Korean Air representative kept telling us that the plane would have to take off due to international regulations. Hell, it was even on time.

I went into shock. White lips and nauseous and all.

Oh, and I made a video diary to show the seriousness of the situation, because it totally made sense to do at the time, and Appa wanted me to stop whimpering in the back seat.

Then I got frantic.

And I did not video diary this part.

We started seeing people dragging their luggage through the pouring rain and muddy fields to the terminals. That looked like a fantastic idea to me, and I was loud and insistent that we get out of the van and start trudging the mile through the rain and mud.

Rain was not going to stop me from getting to my baby.

At the last minute, right before Appa and I were going to go for it, his aunt spied a frontage road that seemed passable and wasn't being guarded by cops. That road took us right up to the international terminal, where, surprise, surprise, there was no traffic. We checked in and made it to our gates only slightly damp and with 20 minutes to spare before the flight took off.

Just 8 minutes late.

Many of the people on the plane were soaked to the bone from their trudge through the mud and the plane was only half full because of all the people who could not make it into the airport. As we taxied down the runaway, a huge lake of water sprayed next to us, and I finally started crashing out of the adrenaline into a heap of messy laughter.

Appa and I simply sat and laughed at the remarkable, amazing, and totally surreal experience we found ourselves in.

Freak flooding. Major overseas travel. No sleep. Teal everything. Baby.

Baby.

Baby.

Baby.