“Serving overseas as a small-town boy from America is intense, stressful and humorous! Enjoy a light-hearted story with me from our last 20 years overseas!”
—Matt
When is it my turn
I think we might start out in life with more patience than we get when we are older. Waiting seems harder for adults, except when it comes to Birthdays and Christmas, and then kids win. It is amazing how impatient adults get as they wait their turn to get out of the parking lot after a high school game or when behind a half dozen people at a four way stop.
We have it pretty good in small-town America compared to many of the very densely populated places on the planet. Where I live now overseas, one section of road that is a half hour drive, becomes a one to two-hour journey in sluggish traffic when traveling at the wrong time.
I think it is hardest for me to wait on airport runways for our turn to take off. The hottest wait I remember was at a huge airport runway on a Boeing 747 in the hot mid-day sun in July. Someone had checked-in their bag, but didn’t end up getting on the very full flight. For some reason or another, they didn’t figure this out until on the runway. We had to wait in the progressively heating airplane as they unloaded nearly an entire cargo hold of luggage to find the bag.
Our most embarrassing wait was in yet another full airplane on that same runway in the mid-day sun in July. However, this time it was our fault, indirectly, as we were flying back overseas from Indiana. My wife was around 7 months pregnant, but looked 10 months along. We had gotten all the proper required paperwork signed to fly with a rotund pregnant wife. However, the flight attendants went in shock at her size. The head stewardess didn’t want to be responsible for her, so she called back to the airport terminal for someone to bring yet another waiver form for my wife to sign. It took at least an hour to get the form, have a vehicle drive it out to the runway, sign it, and then wait our turn for a new spot to take off. The others on the airplane knew who was to blame for their sweaty brows and shirts. They glared at me with angry looks, but looked sympathetically at my wife, like I had somehow coerced her to fly in that condition.
Waiting your turn, usually means we are blessed enough to have a car, can take a trip, have money to purchase something or can be attended to by a doctor. Waiting is often a sign that we have been blessed, but it doesn’t feel that way when waiting.
Something similar ever happen to you? Contact me and let me hear your story!
mattsmishaps@gmail.com Matt’s Mishaps, PO BOX 114, Grabill, IN 46741
Something similar ever happen to you? Contact me and let me hear your story!
mattsmishaps@gmail.com Matt’s Mishaps, PO BOX 114, Grabill, IN 46741
