Chapter Three: A Disney Eve Unlike Any other
By now youre wondering whether we ever got to Disney World or whether this is just some guy grieving in public. The answer to both questions is yes. Eventually, we did get to Disney World. And yes, to some extent I reckon my grief is revealed in my Trip Report.
I write these things so that one day my children can read about their trips with their parents and be reminded of some of the details they might not have remembered. Im Dad and thats part of my job. But this Trip Report isnt just a chronicle of our week in Disney World. I wouldnt even know how to write such a terse recitation of facts. The story of what happened before and what happened after our trip is as much a part of our time in Disney World as what we ate, where we stayed and what we paid. To borrow a phrase. Samuels life mattered even if it was cut short. This is his story, too. Its also the story of our newest child yet to be born. And one day my son or daughter will read this and know how much her mom and dad were praying for her before she even took her first breath.
So bear with me.
We did eventually get to Disney World. But not without additional roadblocks. Not without first being stymied by a tropical storm, being mugged by Suzie Helpershoes relatives, a last minute change of plans, a luggage pilfering and a night in the emergency room. But we ate dinner at Sonnys one night which almost made up for the other things.
You dont realize how good Sonnys is until you move to the northwest and dont get to eat there anymore. And drink sweet tea.
Pause.
The story of Ernesto is well documented. Which wont stop me from telling it again. We were scheduled to fly to West Palm Beach on Wednesday, August 30th, the day Ernesto was planning to drive up the Florida Turnpike while the tolls were lifted, destroying everything in its path.
Who said irony was dead?
Let me go back a few days. The Saturday before, I was in my office playing lawyer and every few hours I would log onto the NOAA NHC website. You should bookmark it. The 5-day cone was entirely in the Gulf of Mexico and I was feeling sad for the poor schlubs in New Orleans who were certainly going to get it again. All of the models, save one, had the storm headed that direction.
On my way home, I spoke with one of the partners in my firm, we call him Mr. Schadenfreude. He was wondering whether I was going to change my plans since Ernesto was going to hit Florida. I told him that it was not coming anywhere near where we were headed. Only one model had it hitting Florida and that had it coming in north of Orlando and almost a week before we were set to arrive in Orlando.
Remember, we were flying into West Palm to spend a week with my family before we drove to Disney World.
By the time I settled down that night and looked at the news, all of the models had changed and every one had Ernesto headed towards Florida.
By Monday morning, the freakin five day cone was covering the Florida peninsula and my personal enemy Ernesto was going to destroy West Palm Beach airport about 10 hours before we were supposed to land. So maybe a change of plans was in order.
You understand that when I called this the summer of our discontent, I was somewhat understating things, right?
We wrestled with whether we should change our flights. We were flying on miles so I called the airline mileage reservation desk where I was greeted by Suzie Helpershoes snarky sister, Stacy MeanPants.
She advised me that they didnt have their storm policy in place yet so if I wanted to change my flights, Id have to pay the change fee. Or I could just wait until the next day when their storm policy was in effect. "Storm policy" was really just a register journal by a different name.
Id just wait until tomorrow, she said with a tone that implied she was feeling premenstrual.
Isnt everyone going to be changing their plans tomorrow? I asked.
Probably, she said. Im almost positive she yawned.
Thats why I called today. I want to be ahead of the crowd.
Well, I gave you your options.
Pause.
I understand my options. If I change today before the register . . .er I mean storm policy is in place, will I get my money refunded to me?
Probably not.
Maam, you understand Im trying to take care of this before the rush. Were flying on miles, I imagine were low man on the pole.
Youre right. I can only book you on flights with mileage seats available.
What are my chances of finding other available seats?
Its a holiday weekend. My guess is there all gone. This was the only time in our conversation when I detected a lift in her voice.
What will happen if we cant get re-ticketed?
Dont worry, well credit back your miles to your account. You wont get charged.
Maam, I dont want my miles. I want my flights. Weve had this vacation booked for a long time. Im ZZUB! Do you have any idea what kind of year Ive had?!
Ok, that last part was only in my head.
However, at this point I realized that this woman was not only going to be un-helpful but she was going to screw with me. So I hung up.
And not politely either.
I stewed. I chewed. I talked to my wife. I bounced options off of some friends. I prayed. I looked on the internet and saw there were several other mileage flights available. I called back.
I found a receptive and surprisingly helpful person who was able to rebook us flying out later on Wednesday and flying into Orlando rather than West Palm. No charge.
Thats right. Storm Policy or not, we werent charged.
So we flew out later in the day which actually was a good thing because I got to sleep in, eat Cocoa Puffs and spend some meaningful time with my tv. You know what? Theres nothing but crap on tv during the day. Who knew?
Our flights to Orlando were wholly uneventful. The second leg, the red eye, was pretty open so I took the row behind my wife and daughter and we were all able to spread out and sleep.
I stayed awake for the first and second snack service. Not because I was hungry. But because Im me. I like the free food. Even if it is just a cookie. Actually, it was a very good sugar cookie.
Then I went to sleep.
I woke up a few hours later to an announcement that we were beginning our approach into Orlando. Yeah, so what? I thought to myself. Youre flying, not me. What do you want, directions?!!?.
Evidently, Im a little pre-menstrual when I first wake up.
No sooner had I sat up then my wife poked her face through the seat in front of me, You missed it. They just passed out hot cinnamon scones! They were
soooooo good.
She was giddy.
So giddy in fact she had turned into me. Must be all the hormones.
We landed. We boarded the monorail and I told my wife that the announcer was the same guy who did the Disney World monorail spiel.
Again.
Because although shes carrying my child, she needs to be reminded frequently how foolish a decision it was to marry a nerd.
We waited 45 minutes for our luggage and then we noticed that someone had pilfered some items out of one of my wifes bags. It was her hair stuff. Stuff that she would never,
ever part with. Stuff that used to
always travel on her person but which now had to be checked. It went missing.
Oh the horror!
Stacy MeanPants roommate, Natalie NoClue-Liar was working in the luggage office when we went to make the claim for the stolen goods. She first tried to blame it on TSA and she advised us of a previously unannounced TSA rule that you cant have anything in the outside pockets of checked bags. They took your stuff, she said. You need to contact TSA.
Really?! I asked incredulously. I fly all the time and Ive never heard this rule. Also, maybe you can explain to me why none of the other pockets on our other bags had things removed.
Bear in mind I had only 3 hours sleep, and I missed out on the hot cinnamon scones.
Realizing that she was wrong and I was right, she sashayed behind the counter and proceeded to type out what appeared to be the Klingon translation of the metro-Orlando area phone book. Eventually, we filed a claim, whatever that means.
We got our car. We got on the road and headed south.
We arrived 2 hours later at my sisters house. Horn blaring the last 5 blocks.
The ZZUBs are here!
The neighbors called the cops.
We had a great week with my sister and her family and both my mom and dad. Since this is a Disney World trip report, and the week with my family doesnt advance the plot of this already long story, I wont describe everything we did that week. Suffice it to say we ate at Sonnys and at a great deli and watched
Napoleon Dynamite and
Anchorman. Also, my dad and I went to see
World Trade Center. Youre briefed.
But the summer of our discontent would had one final act to play out. We spent Disney Eve in the emergency room. I was in the living room talking with my mom. Across the house, I heard my wife call my name in a tone I recognized immediately. I ran across my sisters house, back into our bedroom and I saw what the problem was. We headed immediately to the hospital.
My sister is one of the Godliest women I know. She was also remarkably calm in the midst of our storm. She drove us to the ER and sat with us and prayed with us and comforted us.
After 5 scary hours in the ER listening to the outrageously loud tv from the room next to ours, they finally wheeled us back for an ultrasound. By midnight, we had seen enough and heard enough to know the baby was gone. The ultrasound was only going to confirm that fact for us. I walked behind the gurney, silently pleading with God for a miracle I wasnt entitled to receive.
Once we got into the radiology room, it took another 10 minutes before the technician got everything ready and before we saw anything.
The images we saw were overwhelming and surprising. The baby was alive!
In a completely unplanned reprise of our ultrasound two weeks earlier, I shouted, Hes jumping around! Doesnt that mean hes ok? We were again told that she couldnt tell us anything but we guessed correctly.
Im not embarrassed to write that I cried. A lot.
The sheer exhaustion of eight months of fear, frustration and anxiety all came home to me in that moment. I sat down on a chair and thanked God that our baby was ok.
I heard myself say out loud, Oh, thank God. And I recognized that I had unwittingly quoted from one of my favorite movies which, in an odd way, comforted me. We were in a foreign place, in a dark room where the emotions were running very high. Having familiar words in my head made me smile.
The sonographer was named Yolanda. I told her we were going to name our child after her. Boy or girl.
About an hour later the ER doctor came in and told us the baby looked ok and he didnt know what had happened. He also said if my wife was going to miscarry there was nothing he could do to prevent it at this stage of her pregnancy. He told her to go about her normal activities.
You might imagine that we didnt believe him. I was certain we needed to cancel our trip to Disney World and fly home in a day or two. I wanted our doctor to examine my wife. My wife, however, didnt think we should do that. She said to go home would be to admit defeat. We agreed we would talk with our doctor and adhere to his advice. My sister, for her part, told me to listen to my wife. She wont do anything to risk the babys life. I finally fell into bed at about 2:45 in the morning.
I woke up around 8:00 not knowing whether we were going home, staying put or going to Disney World. It was a strange feeling. A combination of anxiety, frustration and helplessness. Whatever happened, this wasnt the trip we planned.
Months of planning, carefully planning every detail of our trip was shot. We had just lost the moon. Now it was anyones guess what we were doing.
Because our doctor was on west coast time, I couldnt call him just yet. Yes, I could have paged him, but the emergency had passed. We needed counsel and advice. I didnt think it was right to page him for that. However, at 10:30 I paged him. We had a long discussion with him. We described for him every detail of what happened and what the ultrasound revealed.
Because Im a litigator, I know how to lead a witness, therefore, I didnt want to ask the question in such a way as to suggest the answer I wanted to hear. But he was rather insistent that there was no reason to come home. Based on what we told him, his recommendation was for us to continue on our trip and for my wife to take it easy. I made certain he understood we were going to Disney World. His advice was for my wife to not ride any rides that day.
Are you sure we dont need to come home?
Im sure. Just dont let her do too much.
Now then, if you disagree with his opinion, so did I. I thought he was wrong and we needed to head home. But no one agreed with me. My wife, my sister, all of my sisters friends who were praying for us and had experienced similar complications all agreed that we should press on.
And so we did.
Hours behind our scheduled departure, at 1:10 pm we finally left for Walt Disney World. And out of the wilderness, we finally arrived at the Wilderness Lodge.
Our vacation
finally began.
Chapter Four: click here
Blessings on your family!!!
