Routine Setbacks, the International Version

My husband and I took the twins to see his stepbrother, Tom, on Grand Cayman Islands over spring break. It was a good trip and quite rustic. Too rustic for my gadget prone twins. The twins are accustomed to internet surfing, watching TV, and playing some type of game console (currently the wii) on any given day. There was no computer, no video game system, and no cable at Uncle Tom’s house. Once the twins figured this out, they were ready to go back home.

Finding something to do everyday was an adventure. Every morning, they would ask, “Is today Wednesday?” We had told them Sunday when we got there that we’d be going home on Wednesday. When we told them no, that today was NOT Wednesday, they would circle the house like little fish in a fish tank, looking for something to do. Going outside was not an option – neither of them liked the heat, nor the free range chickens in the backyard. Plus, I was a bit wary because Uncle Tom’s condo backyard butted right up to the jellyfish bottom bay. So, we could look at the water, but we could not touch it. We ended up every day doing about four hours of sightseeing in the hot sun, to sap their energy. Two of the days, we went to see the standard touristy things like glass bottom boat sailing and the Turtle Farm. One of the days, we even managed to lose my daughter, but found her in a nearby skateboard park watching the “dudes grinding their boards”. That’s a whole story entirely. Then, every afternoon, we went back to cool off at Uncle Tom’s condo by watching a few DVD’s he had on hand.

Wednesday morning came. And the kids were ready to go back to the airport. We spent the morning touring the eastern side of the island, then got packing to go to the airport. Getting through check in and security was a breeze since we knew what to expect. Then, it was “wait for the plane” time. And that’s when disaster struck. Some poor soul on the flight crew required an ambulance for transport back to a local clinic, a half hour before departure time. Within moments of the catastrophe, an announcement saying the plane was delayed and further information would be available in a half hour came over the intercom. A half hour later, a new announcement came over the PA system saying the flight had been canceled and for all passengers to go back to the ticketing counter.

The preflight checklist/schedule we had written for today said nothing about going backwards. We had to come up with an excuse to inform the kids that we would no longer be departing, would have to stay away from home for another night, and would have to go back to Uncle Tom’s house. What we came up with was, “I’m sorry, the plane is broken and will be fixed tomorrow. We have to come back tomorrow.” This was not well received. We had to manage their respective meltdowns, get our copy of the visitor card from Customs, and wait an hour to get our checked luggage back. During this period, I did all I could do to make empty promises to the kids – something, anything, to help them deal with the new situation. “What’s it going to take to get you through this? Is all you miss is the wii? We’ll buy another one for Uncle Tom’s house. You can have all the ice cream you want. You can eat all the Doritos you want. You can stay up all night. We’ll buy a new computer so you can have internet tonight. Yes, you can have a pony….” In the back of my mind, I was hoping my husband was going to rebook us with new one way non stop tickets to Atlanta. A wii or a pony would be cheaper than walk up one way tickets from Grand Cayman.

Once back through customs, my husband foresaw the pleading wasn’t working, and the smoldering volcanoes in my children’s eyes were about to erupt. He called Uncle Tom to come and rescue me and the kids while he dealt with the luggage. One of Uncle Tom’s co-workers loaded us up in the cab of the little company pickup truck and we headed to Uncle Tom’s office. He had 4 computers on a LAN system and all of them were connected to the internet. I use food to soothe me most of the time, but it was amazing to see how a mere 90 minutes reconnected to You Tube and Uptoten.com made life OK for the twins. My daughter accidentally called up a blank Outlook Email letter and asked me to help her compose how she felt. The email (which ultimately got sent to my husband) said “Dear C-3PO, I’m sorry. The plane is broken. We will go home tomorrow. Love, Daddy.” I was shocked, to say the least, that she was able to express some of her disappointment in some kind of written form to help her calm down. My kids do surprising things every day.

On the way back to Tom’s condo, we stopped at the other island chain of grocery store and bought favorite foods for everyone. Then back to Tom’s, frozen pizza for dinner, extra anti-anxiety meds, for mom, baths for everyone, and then we all watched “Special Features” and “Previews” from the movie “Bewitched” all night long. Everyone got a little something to get them by. Except my husband, who ended up staying two hours on the phone to get us rebooked on a non-direct flight back to Atlanta. I was especially proud of him being able to keep it together on a harrowing day like this.

 Traveling Thursday was uneventful compared to Wednesday. My daughter put on her shoes and socks excited for the trip home at 5:30 AM. She didn’t understand that she still needed to change out of her pajamas, and that nothing was going to happen at 5:30 AM. The kids were professionals now going through security, customs, changing gates and planes, and baggage claim. We left Grand Cayman at 2:30 PM Central Time and rolled into Atlanta at 10 PM Eastern time. The one glitch in the travel plans was explaining to the kids that they could NOT get on their beloved game and computer systems once we got home at 11 because it was time for bed. The only way I could calm down my tantrumming daughter was to remind her that she didn’t have to sleep all night until she could get on the wii. She woke up at 5 AM Friday to begin a full day of gaming.

Were there lessons I learned on this trip? Yes, but I’m not going to think about it right now. I just wanted to give you a glimpse into our lives. Also, I wanted to give you hope that if we can go on a 4/5 day jaunt island hopping in the Caribbean with our kids with special needs, so can you. It won’t be easy, but it will be memorable. And rent a small computer with a dial up connection once you get there.