Sweet Irish Bliss

It has been almost a week since I left America to arrive here in Ireland, and SO much has happened since I got here!! I can only hope and pray I remember it all and am able to share it here ... My heart is bursting and I am nearly always flooded with emotion as I take in so many new and wonderful experiences ... <3

As I sit here now, in our little Irish kitchen, with the fridge quietly
buzzing, Jillian busy creating her new sparkly cat craft we picked up the other day in New Castle, I still can't fully believe I'm really here. In the months before I left home, I tried to condition myself to be able to, once here, completely slow down and take in every tiny detail, appreciate this new and wonderful environment, and most of all, cherish every second Aidan and I have together after being apart for so long... Oh sweet Aidan. My heart is so completely his.

The morning we left was a tad on the chaotic side. I'd stayed up till almost 3am trying frantically to get as much schoolwork done as possible, because for me, my term doesn't end until tonight, and I knew once we'd arrived, it would be full speed ahead with very little downtime --- after all, the very next day was my first Irish wedding! So waking up on Wednesday morning last week, I was immediately aware of my very tired eyes. I lay there in bed for a few minutes, looking around my room, at the emptiness on the other side of my bed, realizing that in a few hours I would no longer be alone but be lovingly reunited with my true love. In Ireland. I found myself saying that out loud in the last months but truly finding it so hard to believe! So finally, I jumped up from bed and got moving, getting coffee and walking around the house trying to remember everything I needed to do before we left. My brain was so scattered. The packing was mostly done, but I was leaving my sons for seven weeks, the longest I'd ever been away from them, and my heart was sad for that. I wanted to make sure they had everything they needed and that they were at peace with this whole situation -- even though we'd discussed it at least a hundred times before. Over coffee, I glanced through Facebook posts -- literally dozens of them -- my loving American family and friends wishing us well and safe travels, my new Irish family and friends already sharing their excitement to meet us. It was so overwhelming for me to feel such an outpouring of shared happiness -- and on both sides of the Atlantic, no less. I was, and continue to be, so thankful for all of it.

The time was flying by. I still had errands to run, a shower to take, last minute goodies to pack ... My daughter to get ready ... It was so crazy! I wanted to be on the plane and in the air on one hand, but I was scared I was forgetting something and overlooking important matters in all of my frenzy, on the other. And every little while, with my mind racing, the kids in and out, my mom calling on the phone wondering what time we should leave, the dog pacing, knowing his 'mommy' was headed off again somewhere, the ex texting to come see Jillian and say goodbye ... In the midst of all of that, a peace and calming would sweep over me like a breath of fresh air: The realization that this dream of flying to Ireland to be with Aidan was finally happening.

Somehow we were finally in my parents' car and headed over the Bluewater Bridge to Canada. We had a three hour drive to Toronto to the airport. I was slightly nervous that our bags were too heavy and that we'd have to pull stuff out and not take it, or that even though I'd read the carryon allowances a zillion times, that we'd be told we had too much. Not sure why I even stressed over this little stuff because if someone had told me I had two minutes with no warning to jump on a plane to go see Aidan, I wouldn't have even thought about grabbing a jacket or shoes if it meant I could be with him sooner!

After a bit of a drive, we came into the airport area and looked for a parking garage, unfortunately quite a walk from where we needed to be, especially hauling heavy bags. Somehow we made it to the Air Canada desk to check bags but by that time, I was sweating like crazy! I was so relieved to see the clerk not bat an eye at our suitcases but just check them and ok our passports and tickets. This was it! We were about to embark on one amazing journey. It was time to head over through the REALLY long and slow security line, but first we had to say our goodbyes. I was so relieved to see that my mom was at peace about this trip -- she is one to worry A LOT, but she'd prayed about this and finally ok with us leaving, and happy that Aidan and I would be together after all this time. Big hugs and kisses and waving as we walked away ... And then Jillian and I turned the corner toward the line and looked at each other. Before I could say anything, Jillian piped up and announced, "Well? There's no turning back now, Mom!" OH this girl cracks me up. ;-)

But good Lord was that line painful to stand through. The line was miles long and slower than slow. We both had two carryon bags, Jillian wore a hat and I had a pashmina on .. we were ROASTING with no choice but to just suck it up and deal. By the time we made it to security I think we'd waited almost an hour. We pulled out our laptops and one-quart baggies full of our liquids, gels, and creams, and piled it all in the checkpoint trays on the security belt and walked through the X-ray archway.

And then, I got pulled over by a guard as my bags went through the X-ray machine.

Ugh.

I was asked to step aside ... and I was trying to keep my hand on Jillian (airports are no places to lose sight of a child!) The woman sifted through my backpack and pulled out ... MY DULCIMER TUNING WRENCH. Really??? It was all I had not to burst out laughing. She held it up to the other guard, they hemmed and hawed. I looked at them and said, "It's the tuning wrench for my musical instrument," and I stared at them. Finally, she shrugged and shoved it back in my bag and let me go. If that's the height of the drama on this trip, we'll be fine, I said to myself, as we piled our stuff back in our bags.

Once again, by the time we made it the forty mile walk to our gate, we were sweating like pigs. I took Jillian to the restroom (and another waiting line.) After that, we found seats at a row of iPad stations with free wifi. Good! Finally I can try to chat with Aidan, right? Wrong. Free wifi but it didn't work for much! We exchanged a few words through Facebook and that was all she wrote -- couldn't get anything to work after that. Jillian already made friends with a woman across from us who was headed to Oxford to live with her sister for a couple of years. We had about an hour to wait.

When it was time to board, we gathered our pile of heavy (by now I would say ridiculous) bags and headed to the plane. When I realized how packed this plane was, I was once again stressed about where we'd put our stuff. Thank God, we were sitting next to a saint of a man with red hair. He must've noticed the look on my face as I gazed up to the packed overhead and he jumped out of his aisle seat and just started taking our bags and fitting them in! He was awesome. I thanked him profusely. Jillian moved over to the window seat and I was in the middle (three seats wide on the right side of the plane, when facing the back.) We each had our own touch screen entertainment center facing us, on the backside of the headrest of the seat in front of us. As Aidan would say, it was class.

Before we even got in the air, the red headed Brit next to us was covered up with his blue airplane blanket, a pillow under his head, his sleep mask over his eyes, and he was OUT LIKE A LIGHT. The drink cart came around, he slept through it. The dinner cart came through, he slept through it. We fell asleep for about three hours, thankfully. Then Jillian had to go to the restroom. I looked at the sleeping Brit and back at her. Uh oh. Now what. I touched the guy's arm. Nothing. I shook his arm slightly and kept saying, "Sir? Pardon me, sir?" FINALLY he jolted half awake and I told him my daughter needed to get out to go to the restroom. He never moved the eye mask, he just mumbled 'sure climb over.' ?? I looked at Jillian, shrugged and told her, "well girl, I guess climb over!" And off she went, climbing over this sleeping stranger. By the end of that flight, she'd climbed over and back three times but it wasn't until he got up himself that I finally got up myself. I just couldn't bring myself to straddle a stranger in an airplane!!! Bladder bursting or not.

We saw the sun come up over the clouds. My heart was beating out of my chest. We were about to land in London at Heathrow International Airport. I still had a few hours till I could finally see Aidan in Dublin, but we were finally in the same time zone at least! We had a continental breakfast and prepared for landing. I'm telling you, by this time I could barely contain myself. I was tired, but wired. I'm glad I got a few hours of sleep because I knew I'd be feeling it later!!

When we landed, Mr Sleepy Brit took down all of our bags. I mentioned to him that I was impressed with his ability to sleep through everything and that he must've truly beat jet lag. He said he travels so much that he has it down to a science by now. We headed off the plane and through the long corridor and into the airport. It was very quiet as it was only 6:30am-ish. We followed signs to connecting flights and holy moly, it was another forty miles through this airport! Luckily our bags were checked through to Dublin so at least we didn't have to deal with suitcases too. We went through customs without a hitch, but we had to get our mugshot. The customs agent asked where we were going, I told her Dublin. She asked if we would be staying there, I said no, that we were being picked up by my boyfriend and going back to Northern Ireland. She asked if he was on holiday too, I explained that he was home from living in the States for several years. She said, "Oh, so he's British."

??

That really irked me, because I don't think of Aidan as British. He's Irish. And I know the whole story of the British vs. Irish in Northern Ireland and yes I have an opinion of it, but I'm also not stupid enough to start something at customs. (haha). So I held it together and answered, 'Well yes, theoretically I guess he is British." That was interesting.

Poor Jillian, her legs started to hurt, those blasted growing pains. We didn't have any water, either, to take meds, so we just kept walking. What a trooper. She was holding back tears. We found out soon enough that we had yet another mile long line to go through for a security check AGAIN. Jillian was miserable but she held it together. After that long mess and yet another mugshot (and no issues), we kept walking until we found a shop to buy water. I hadn't exchanged any money yet and had no time to do so, I just used my debit card. Got my girl some water for meds and headed to a clear area off to the side to sit down. She literally laid on the floor with tears. My heart broke for her. I sat there and massaged her legs, our carryons gathered around us, waiting for the meds to kick in. It was beautiful airport, by the way, but when your little girl is in pain, you don't notice too much. The meds finally took the edge off and she was able to start walking again. We passed a toy store, actually dozens of shops -- but no time to stop. At this point I had no idea how far the other terminal was -- the pilot notified us that we had landed in the "new" terminal 2 and our connecting flight with Aer Lingus was in Terminal 1. We walked And walked And walked. Holy freaking moly.  When we found our gate, it was boarding! Thank God we didn't miss it. The gate clerk called certain rows on the mic, and then looked at me and called me forward. I said, "Oh, I'm sorry, you haven't called our row section yet," to which he answered "It's ok, you look like you need to board." He had such a sympathetic, kind look on his face. I was grateful. Being one of the first on the plane, we had time to get our stuff in overhead and to get comfortable without feeling so rushed. Jillian's fog was lifting and she started getting really excited. I was getting REALLY excited. Aidan here we come!!!

It was a smaller plane so we felt a little more turbulence, but barely anything to write about. It was such short flight that by the time we were in the air, we were descending again. We saw beautiful land below us very quickly and were soon told that we were over Cardiff, Wales. My head was spinning. This was it. This was REALLY it. It finally was beginning to hit me that my sweet love and his sister would be waiting for us to walk out of the baggage claim area in Dublin airport. Oh be still my beating heart!

We saw Ireland as we landed and snapped photos through the airplane window. Jillian and I had the giggles. We were just so excited. Gathered our stuff and headed out of the plane once again. We followed signs for baggage and ended up at immigration/customs, and we were basically alone. It seemed everyone else had UK or EU passports and headed to a different area. We spoke with a customs agent and it was very quick. I had had a concern about traveling with my daughter, as far as having the right notarized permission from her father and whether or not I'd be questioned as to why we're traveling out of the country, but thank God, no issues at any of the three borders (Canada, UK, Ireland.) From Customs we were released into the baggage area. I was still surprised at how quiet things had been in both London and Dublin airports, but it was early on a weekday morning. I had time to spruce up and powder my nose, grab some gum, and try to get a luggage buggy. That was hilarious. I could NOT free one from another. There were 500 sitting there like shopping carts, all pushed into each other. A person would walk up and pull on one and it would come out and they'd walk away, but every time I tried it, I'd get two!! UGH. It was frustrating. Another woman, I noticed, was having the same luck. She was Irish. We had such a laugh over this. FINALLY I got one out and then another for this woman who was very grateful. What an adventure.

Jillian and I watched for our suitcases, which made it in one piece! Woot! We hoisted everything onto the buggy, and we turned to face this giant blackened glass that stood between my true love and I, and I paused. I just had to breathe and take the moment in. On the other side of that door ahead of me, was Aidan and his sister. I knew when I went through the door, I'd see him standing behind the rope. Breathe in, breathe out. Finally I headed through that door and my eyes were already glazing over holding back tears -- I hadn't even caught a glimpse of him yet. Through misty tears, my eyes scanned the crowd as I pushed this heavy buggy forward -- and there he was. OH dear Lord what a sight for sore eyes!!!! I started moving faster to get past the roped off area, and he walked in my direction. It was heaven. As soon as we were within touching distance, and with Jillian right at my side, I dropped my hands from the buggy handle and threw my arms around this sweet man. OOOOOOOOOOOH there are not words for what this reunion felt like. I was holding back tears and couldn't get close enough to him. It was heaven to be in his arms again!!! We kissed and hugged like there was no tomorrow. I finally had to let go long enough to meet his sweet sister, Fionnuala, and introduce my daughter. What a sweet, sweet reunion. I truly had the feeling that I was home. I was home in Ireland. And as crazy as that sounds, it makes sense in my head. My heart belongs to Aidan, my Irish sweetheart. This is his home. And I'm at home wherever he is. I knew from that point on that I would call two lands my home: America and Ireland.