First, I’ll show you the pictures I took at Newark Airport as Gavin and his cousin prepared for their first ‘parent-less’ flight.

Second, I’ll tell you that through a series of actions by several United Airlines employees that were unprofessional, disorganized, and misinformed, our kids missed their crack-of-dawn flight.  It was really unfortunate and super inconvenient.  Super.

It was a really looooong day that ended in the late afternoon with happy teens boarding a plane bound for sunny Florida.

As my sister recounted our woes on Facebook, a friend of her’s simply stated:

‘God’s purposes, no?’

Yes. I can embrace that. A reason for everything.