I finished packing at noon and planned to shower, finishing grading (yes I still had papers to mark), and have lunch with family before heading to the airport to catch my flight to Miami at 3pm. At 1pm I logged on to submit student grades and saw two emails flagged from the airline.
The first email notification: my flight with American Airlines was cancelled due to weather in New York (where my stopover was).
The second: The new flight would get to to Miami @ 6pm on Wednesday 12 hours too late for my flight out to Port-au-Prince on Insel Air.
I sent out a quick prayer request to my support team and then got on hold with AA for about 30minutes to see if there was another way to get to Miami in time for my flight to Haiti. The agent told me that the only flight with any seats open to Miami was at 2:30pm but because US customs is IN the Toronto airport there would not be enough time for me to get to the airport and clear customs to make the flight.
This is when panic mode set in. If I didn't make it to Miami I would loose might flight to Haiti because it was booked completely separately. I got on the phone with Amy (who had arranged for all 5 of our tickets from Miami to Haiti) to see if there was any way she could see if there was a way to change my Miami-Haiti ticket to the following day (I had accepted the fact I wasn't going to make it with the other four based on the conversation with AA). All the while, I kept thinking how going on my phone, arriving in Port-au-Prince was not my plan, that airport arrival fear surfacing again. Amy pushed me saying that she didn't see how it was possible that I wouldn't be on the same flight as them and to get on the phone again with AA and not accept no for an answer (she was eerily calm and certain things wouldn't play out any other way than what we had planned). Something about her voice made me think if I was so sure about this entire return trip in the first place, why accept the airline agents answers about there not being a way to get there on time?
So, I called again. This time, the agent said the 2:30pm fight, the only one with any seats, had been delayed until 4pm. There were two seats left. According to the agent, there was a 50/50 chance I'd get on because it was likely the plane would be overbooked due to all the flight cancellations. But, the said it was worth a shot and to get to the airport ASAP.
I have never seen my family move so fast night my life. Within 5 minutes, all 5 of us were in the car and on our way. Mad dash of goodbyes and low and behold I was checked in with a seat... but... that isn't the end of the story.
Because then there was customs. You know when you just look at a customs agent and have that feeling that you hope you get someone else? Well, sure enough the one that I had that feeling about was the agent I got sent to. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I just knew. So, when he wasn't to take my I-94/TN visa paper I was pretty sure that if that happened I would loose all proof of eligibility to work/return to the US for work after finishing in Haiti. I need that permit to prove my work authorization. I asked to speak to someone else about it, since there was not point in arguing with the agent, and at that point he proceeded to send me to secondary inspection.
Secondary inspection is not a place you want to get sent to when you have less than 60 minutes to board your flight. Secondary inspection is the bowels of customs. I tried to explain the situation when they were checking me in there, but was pretty much told to sit and wait my turn in the room full of people ahead of me. There were enough people in there to make what I thought would be a 3-4 hour wait. I sat down all the while praying and remembered my talk with Amy earlier and how she had said not to accept no with the airlines and not to be timid. That if I had been so sure about this to behave on that surety. I knew if I sat down and accepted the wait that there was no way I would get on my plane, and I already knew that this flight was my only hope, so...... I went back to the agent who signed me in to secondary and tried again. All the while thinking this didn't make sense, pushing this would probably just make him angry and increase my wait time.... but somehow, whatever I said seemed to cause him to see the situation in a different light and somehow that is beyond me I found him walking me back to the original agent, getting the acting supervisor to come over, and getting the go ahead to go through! My departure has been anything but smoothed, but despite everything that happened I am still on schedule and, because of everything, I have just experienced first hand God's power and sovereignty. I feel as if He is showing me just how in control He is... and so I am grateful that today played out the way that it did.
However, the final customs agents did tell me I would have to surrender my I-94/TN paper when leaving Miami because apparently my work status does not allow me to leave North America (I didn't want to push the subject and ask if Haiti wasn't in North America, what content is it in exactly?). So, here I am, sitting in my seat on a plane to Miami with the very real possibility that once I leave Miami tomorrow morning I may not be able to come back to the US.... I am totally in Father's hands. Trusting in His promise never to leave or forsake and praying for a deepening of my trust in Him. And, remembering that he has drawn me with loving kindness; that I am loved by an everlasting love... that I am to love recklessly because it is what He designed me to do.
2: Corinthians 5:13-15: If we are "out of our mind," as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced hat one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
Zechariah 8 <3
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