The rest of the story.....

We left New York City with the rain beginning to come down harder, and since our feet were pretty wet, we were slightly chilly.  It was good to be in a car headed to the airport, finally drying out.  We had shopped much of the morning, told our fellow travelers goodbuy and had a bite of lunch.  It took much longer to get to the airport this time since the weather was so nasty.  We saw lots of flashing police lights and heard many sirens.  I prayed that we would get to the airport safely!! So MUCH traffic!  We did drive through Central Park on the way to the airport and it was lovely, even in the rain!  When we got to the airport, we saw that our flight was delayed by about 20 minutes....that's okay, we had about an hour to make our connecting flight in Atlanta anyway.  As we sat in the airport, we talked to a musician, who had been to NYC for an audition and we talked to four Russian girls who told us they were headed to Houston to be "housekeepers" in Galveston.  They spoke broken English, so it was interesting to talk to them....although I have to admit, when I heard them say they were going to be housekeepers, my heart sunk.......thinking so much about all the human trafficking going on. At that point, I began to pray that wasn't the case in their situation.  As we boarded the plane,  I thought we were going to be close on time to make the connection, but we could still possibly make it, very closely.....however, we learned that there were EIGHTEEN planes ahead of us to take off, with delays because of the weather, and had a sinking feeling that we would never make it.  And we didn't.  When we got to Atlanta, we were directed to the Customer Service booth, where they gave us vouchers for one meal and a discounted hotel room.  My daughter wanted to help the Russian girls thru the whole process, knowing that this would be so foreign to them.  After trying to persuade them to come with us, even offering to pay for their hotel room, they declined.  Allison was so distraught for them that she wanted to stay the night in the airport with them....and she got mad at me when I wouldn't let her.  We told them they would be safe, how to get some food, and we left for a hotel.  Allison's school schedule demanded that she get some sleep, especially since she was getting a cold.  We had left for New York knowing that she could only miss those two days, or she would lose her exemption for taking her finals....yep, she was going to have to take the finals.  She wasn't very happy about THAT either!  We managed to get ourselves and the Russian girls on the plane to Houston the next morning, managed to get Allison to school by 11:00 a.m.. the next morning, and I came home to crash....I was so tired!  So to make a very long story short, my daughter has a tender heart, we had a blast and it is a trip long to be remembered!! And I continue to pray for the Russian girls that came across our path.  I don't know if we will ever see them again, but I pray they are safe.  Have a good Monday, y'all.