Carrie Cox’s Corner

You know Tchaikovsky’s song that they play in the movie “Home Alone” when they miss their alarm and arrive to the airport late and are racing to get to the terminal? The dum diddle little little dum dum dum…dum diddle little little dum dum dum one?

Well, I’ve lived that moment. I could actually hear it in full blast in my head as I was running in to the ticket counter, skipping ahead in line, and begging strangers to helps us make it work.

It was spring break 2018, and that year we were going to Gatlinburg for a little family time. We rented a cabin, mom was picking us up in Nashville, and we were going to visit Cornerstone and then head over the next day. It was early Sunday morning, and it was also the spring forward time change. Well we both set early alarms on our phones, but somehow the time changes caused them both to either be deleted or skipped, and I woke up about the time we were supposed to be leaving the house.

“Nathan,” I said, “look at the clock!”

How was this possible?

I called the airline and they said if we arrived at the airport within an hour of our departure time, they would see if they could get us on another plane on standby.

Then the music began.

Some how we made it all the way to Hobby with the kids and our luggage in time. Somehow I got up the courage to skip people in line, all the while praying for some nice people, and somehow I got one. She said she could check us in, and when Nate and the kids and the luggage come inside, we headed up to the terminal. The next flight was booked, but they could get us on one that went to New Orleans and then on to Nashville from there. We said yes, and they were able to find us all a spot on the plane. What a blessing, I thought.

Once in New Orleans, however, they didn’t have any good options for getting us to Nashville. Well, why did we even get sent here? One lady said we could get a flight back to Houston and then another one to Nashville from there. That felt pretty stupid. Finally, there was one that afternoon that opened up. There was enough for standby for me and the kids, but not for Nathan. He would probably only be able to fly in around midnight that night. What a mess. I hated the plan of splitting up, but it was that or go back home. We had to go for it. They were able to find us a place on the back of the plane and shuffle some people around so that I could sit together with the kids. Just as we were settling in, Nathan walked in. They had found him a spot just in the nick of time. Off we flew to Nashville, finally. Our family picked us up and we went to supper instead of breakfast followed by going to the evening service at Cornerstone instead of the Sunday main.

We were really struggling to make sense of why traveling had been so much trouble. Why it seemed like we were hindered, and why we felt even more frustrated than we did before this vacation from both of us working full time that we felt like we really needed. It just didn’t seem fair, I thought in my spoiled mindset.

All troubles aside, we ended up having a great time visiting the church and then staying with our long time friends the Sloans. The next morning we woke up and there was snow outside! It snowed on our spring break! They kids were so excited. It may have been the first time Hunter had ever seen snow. Going into the mountains that day the snow stuck and even started to pile up in a few places. Claira and her cousins were able to build the tiniest and cutest snow man that you’ve ever seen from the left over flakes on the porch, and the cabin had a hot tub, so being in the hot tub with snow outside was a very awesome experience for our sun shiny Texas children.

Something else happened during this trip that also made it worth the hassle. It was during this trip that I made an important decision. I had been working in Public School for the past two years. My first year was so totally terrible (as first year teaching usually is) but it was made worse by it also being the entire administration’s first year. Bad year, good lessons, but a bad year. I did learn a lot though, and we made some awesome strides with our students that year.

My second year was much better. I had moved to a bigger school closer to home. Although it was a title one school (meaning high percentage of the students are at an extensive economic disadvantage and qualify for a virrey of support services), it was run much more efficiently. I had support if the kids were misbehaving, and I really loved the kids and what I was able to teach them. My first day, I remember being nervous during my last period class when half of my class was from the football team. They walked in and were all towering above me, but by the end of the year, they all told me, “Ms. Cox…we got yo back.” And you know what, I had theirs too.

I still miss that school and those kids. They were in 11th grade then and are young adults now, but a few of those “kids” still keep in contact with me today.

But back to my story, after all the stress of flying-nearly missing our flight- all of our plans for day one being thrown out the window, I was like, why can’t we catch a break? It seemed like we were hindered. We pushed through and tried to clear our minds. It took a few days, but finally when we were riding the ski lift up the mountain looking over the beautiful little town nestled in the Appalachians, my mind cleared.

Sometimes you need to fight the fight to get away so you can have clarity to see what to do in the future. This was one of those times.

I realized on that ski lift and shared it with Nathan that I was ready leave public school and come back to teaching in our private school. It was a drastic pay cut, about 80% less, but one that I had peace about. I talked to Nathan about being more available for my kids, about teaching in our Christian school where I could openly share my faith, where I could teach without such bureaucracy and spend more times on teaching than paperwork. Where I didn’t have 200 essays to grade, and I could spend some time working one on one with students to develop their abilities, a place where I could teach children for multiple years to build onto the concepts we were trying to master.

That week I decided for sure that I was ready for some changes, and that the pace of life we were living was not sustainable. We always knew that my working at public school would be temporary, but I had such a good year at my new school, it was harder to leave.

I have such fond memories of that trip. It was Hunter’s first time flying and he absolutely loved it. He was squealing when we got on the plane. He didn’t seem to notice all the stress and delays. I even smile when I remember us racing through the airport trying to make it to the ticket counter in our own movie moment. Thankfully I didn’t forget any of my kids in the rush.

But I guess what I’m thankful about for this memory is how that even though we almost messed it all up, the days and weeks did not go at all as I had planned, it ended up being a very special trip. From the snow angels, to the angel direction for our life, if we had not had fought to get away from the stress and business of our daily life at that time, if we had given into the hassle and said it’s not worth it at the airport, I don’t know if I would have made that decision that year.

I also am thankful for that trip because it helped us learn how to travel when things aren’t going well. It helped us to mature.

So today I’m thankful for travel delays. The day did not go how I planned, but the week ended up really good. Nathan and I often talk about that trip, how it was just so weird how it all started and how it all ended up working out, but it did feel like we were intentionally hindered. Sometimes hindrances and delays can open up new possibilities.

I needed to remind myself of that truth recently when the “dum dittle little dum dum dum” started cranking up again in my head. You see we’re not only traveling by ourselves these days, recently we have been traveling internationally with youth from our school. And boy do delays and the unexpected issues come. I’ve learned not to sweat the small stuff because, well I already sweat it before and it turned out okay. Except at the time, they seemed like the big things. I’ve learned to trust that there is a reason for the hindrance, and even to rejoice that if we’re experiencing hindrances, maybe the Lord is preparing to do something special. I’ve also grown up a little and realized doing special things- good things, is hard to do. It takes work, sacrifice, more money, time. But it’s the price you have to pay. You go into it knowing that things probably won’t go smoothly, but it is still worth it.

Maybe you’re having a day when it seems like you’re just trying to do right and nothing is going right. I had one of those today. Let me remind you to take a time out. Breath for a minute, and remind yourself today is a good day to make a memory. Find a place to fit in a little humor in the situation. Take a moment and Thank God for the delays.