3:30am came extremely early this morning! Kristina told me to get her up @ 4am so we could be on the road by 4:30am. I quietly got dressed and worked downstairs to get things finalized before we left. We were in the van and on our way @ 4:37. We picked up Dale Mason and headed over to John and Alison's.

We headed down toward the on ramp @ exit 148 and began toward the Interstate when something seemed wrong. Brake lights were bright in the early morning darkness. There were also the familiar blue strobes of the police down the interstate. Traffic was at a standstill. Kristina quickly put on the brakes and pulled to the side of the ramp. We turned around and went back down the ramp and on to Route 54 south (The things you are able to do @ 4:45am!!) We followed the back roads up one exit to exit 150 where there was NO TRAFFIC AT ALL!

The trip to the airport was uneventful from there with the exception of Kristina breaking some land speed records for seemingly no reason except that it is rumored she has a heavy foot! We arrived at the airport around 5:30am and Kristina dropped us guys off to go park. Her, Alison and the kids were headed in after that. So John, Dale, and I approached the counter...

"Are the 3 of you together?" we were asked "Where are you going?"

We answered somewhat confused at the urgent almost rude manner in which we were asked.

"Quick, get your bags up here, let me see your ID, you have just a few minutes...you'll have to run." Words were being barked at us that I couldn't understand their purpose. Our flight was to leave at 7:30am and we were 2 hours early! Then came the reason...

"The 7:30 flight is delayed and you will miss your flight to Guatemala, we're putting you on the 6:00am flight so you have to rush." We were told to take the elevator and that there was no time to waste. John was on the phone with Alison. They were rushing back around in the van. I ran out the door and sprinted down the road. I jumped in the van and kissed my family good-bye and sprinted back inside. Security told us we couldn't get on the elevator (we did). When we arrived on the 3rd floor the area was packed with pilots and special needs passengers. A worker came and kindly but a bit humorously asked why we picked this morning to come this way. We told her our situation...she paused...and then led us straight through to the x-ray. We ran to the gate, handed our tickets, boarded the plane and they closed the door.

We were in Atlanta 20 minutes before we were even supposed to originally board our plane in Raleigh. God only knows sometimes. We've spent the last hour talking about the "What if" scenarios.

All we can say is "GOD IS AWESOME!"