All hail the single parents

You may be wondering, "Why is Richard going and not Lori?" You may not be wondering that. I would suggest that you wonder that, because I'm going to answer that...wonder. Hmmm. Can you answer a wonder? nb

Where was I? Oh, yeah. I'm going. Lori's staying.

So, the initial plan for this was for Shanlee and Megan to go alone. We planned to pony up the fees so we could drop them off at the airport with a smiling airline worker who would get them to the gate and on the plane. At each layover, another smiling airline worker would pick them up at the gate, take them to the next gate and ensure that they were on the connecting flight. When they got to the DR, our friends would pick them up. Great plan.

Or not.

I can't even count the ways this plan was doomed. First, you can't send them on the last flight of the day - which our plans included. So they were going to have to spend the night in an airport. We figured our way around that by scheduling a 1 a.m. flight out of SLC that arrives in the DR in the afternoon. Beautiful! Except for the little thing where you can't send unaccompanied minors on flights between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. Grrrr!

Then we found out that little snag about having problems getting them into and out of the DR without a parent - impossible. The easiest way to solve this is to send both parents with them, which would be fun. Really. There's just the expense of sending two of us and the tricky fact that we five children. That leaves three at home.

Now, I know what you're thinking. "Brielle is so mature." Yes, she is - wonderful child. Very responsible. And ten years old. And the trip will last 10 days. Brielle's good for a maximum of 6 days, then we'd need to be home. (Please don't call DCFS - I'm speaking facetiously and would never leave the younger three alone for more than a day...)

So, the obvious answer is to send one of us. Since I know Spanish un poco, I was the obvious choice. Well, maybe not obvious, but as Lori speaks French, and they aren't going to Haiti, it seemed a bit more appropriate for me to go. Plus, Lori doesn't trust me alone with the younger kids for more than 6 hours. =S

Now, I had the opportunity to watch the three younger kiddies last week while Lori was at Youth Conference. Just in the evenings. I'd like to take this opportunity to sing praises to all of the single parents out there - I spent 2 1/2 days as a single parent and managed to botch up piano lessons. Translation: forget completely that on the list 5 of things I had to make sure happened was piano lessons, meaning we forfeited the tuition for that lesson.

Fortunately for me, Lori is much better at keeping track of things, and will be more than capable of staying on top of things while I'm gone - much more than can be said of me. Now if I can just remember how to say 'multitask' in Spanish, I may manage to get Shanlee and Megan there and back. So much to keep track of...