The start of Something New

Moving Day

First off, moving is a stressful ordeal. Moving overseas is even harder. Saying goodbye to loved ones knowing that you won't get to see them as often as your used to is almost unbearable. Thank goodness for modern technologies such as phones, internet, Skype, planes, etc. Right?

We were booked on a 3:30pm direct flight to the UK out of Houston. Our dog Abel had been checked into United Airway's PetSafe, we'd said our teary goodbyes to our families, successfully got past TSA security checkpoint, only to fail not once, but three times to take off. Mechanical problems eventually led to our flight being cancelled around 7:30pm.

While waiting in line to figure out the next available flight, I called PetSafe to check on Abel to make sure he was okay (at this time he'd been kenneled for close to 8 hours). The man on the phone informed me that Abel had been put on the next plane to the UK that was departing in 50 minutes!!!!

Panic set in. Abel was flying ahead of us and the line we were in WAS NOT MOVING!! The poor man on the phone got the brunt of all my frustrations with the move and the fact that our dog was not with us, was being SEPARATED from us. We explained to on of the United service personnel and she led us to the first class/business line which had 2 people being helped. Despite their being 2 people, we didn't reach the desk until around 8:40. We knew there was little chance of us getting on the 8:50 plane, and our fears were confirmed. Abel was on his way to the UK without us.

Crying seemed to be the theme. Our Abel was gone. The earliest flight we could get was 6:40am the next morning with an 8 hr layover in New Jersey. We wouldn't arrive in the UK until the morning after, a good 24 hours after Abel. However, we were assured that PetSafe would hold him and take good care of him.

Blessing in Disguise

After crying in the airport and having a freak out at the airport, I was exhausted. Lucky for us, United gave us a place to stay at the Holiday Inn. On the shuttle to the hotel we met some people from the UK that lived close we are now calling home. They reignited our enthusiasm for our move. They told us of the place where they lived and the Medieval structures that still stand.

The next morning we boarded our flight and made it safely to New Jersey. We landed in Newark, NJ which was conveniently located close to the Statue of Liberty state park. We set out to sight-see.. $50 cab ride later we were at the state park. We saw Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. We could see the NY skyline and Empire State Building. We walked for a few hours then hailed a taxi back to the airport to await our plane.

We had a slightly turbulent plane ride to the UK, but arrived on time. We were excited to finally be in the UK and even more excited when Dean from the Silver Birch Kennels picked us up from the airport with Abel in tow! Abel looked well and was happy to see us! We were dropped off at the base and Dean took Abel to be kenneled until we can get a home for all of us. We are currently living in the base hotel, but that's for another time....