Yesterday, we flew from Maryland to California for a summer visit with Bret’s family. I am SO thankful that God has us in a season of abundance so that we can visit more.

We arrived in Las Vegas in route to our California end stop. We had a scheduled layover of about six hours. I was thankful for not being too tired this time around, but it was still a tough wait. I had some Starbucks to help over the first hump. I felt like young Anakin in his pod racer when he says “It’s working!!!!”

I spent the hours eating, reading, catching up on games and listening to podcasts. Finally, the time came to move to the gate and then we boarded. The new airline we tried has a great boarding method….if you don’t have a carry on, you board first….it really helps to get the plane boarded.

We sit down, start reading and wait. We pull out from the gate and stop….and wait….then there’s an announcement that the breaks are hot, so we have to wait some more….then another announcement that it’s not cooling, so we have to go back to the gate and deboard. We spent probably another hour or so sitting at the gate (thankfully very air conditioned!) Finally, we’re told we’re changing planes. Woo hoo!! We ended up waiting another 20 minutes or so at the gate before boarding.

All told, we were delayed 3 hours. What was a six hour layover, became 8. It’s a shame I don’t gamble.

But here’s what I learned. Sometimes waiting isn’t bad at all. The three hours flew by, because we started chatting with the girl sitting next to us. We chatted with other passengers. We joked, we learned about each other. Sure, some of the passengers were really mad, wanting refunds and complained to people who couldn’t change anything. (What can they do about a plane that’s hot in Las Vegas in June? I mean, really?) But for the most part, while frustrated that we had to wait, everyone was pretty optimistic and just dealt with the card we were given. If we hadn’t had this big delay, we never would have chatted with the lady sitting next to us. We shared stories about rock climbing and hiking. She was a ranger and we chatted about what she does. It was so fun! It was also cool to see how a situation like this brings a group of people together. We weathered the storm together and came out stronger. We connected on a personal level that wouldn’t have existed if we weren’t delayed.

The next time you’re met with having to wait, think about what you’re actually getting out of the delay.

Oh, and get Starbucks, always get Starbucks.

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