Every vacation ends eventually, and today was lift-off day for me. When I got to the breakfast table, 3 sad small fry greeted me. “Why are you going back to America today, MeeMee?”

It was a distressing question, because no reason was good enough for them. So I just said, “I’ll be coming back to see you later!”

“By dinner?” Thomas said.

“Not that soon…”

Nicholas, Evelyn, and Thomas are too young to grasp the difficulty of frequent comings and goings across so many time zones, and I felt like I was abandoning them. My only consolation was that out of sight is often out of mind for young children. Maybe they won’t miss me as much as I’ll miss them.

Airport goodbyes were teary, and little Evelyn kissed me on the lips multiple times: “One for Auntie Weez, one for Auntie Britt, for Den-Den (Nelson), Uncle Lars, Uncle Batis (Klaus), Auntie Brooke,” and on and on it went until my face was dripping wet with her sweet kisses.

Nicholas simply said, “I don’t want you to go, MeeMee.”

But as I rolled my suitcases toward the terminal in a British drizzle, I looked back and saw them pull away, crestfallen faces pressed against the car windows, little hands waving. Ouch to my heart.

Once the plane had been boarded and had made its way to the end of a runway with engines rumbling, the captain came on the intercom to say we’d be delayed by 15 minutes. He couldn’t find the flight plan and had to make a new one. Though this was unsettling, at least we weren’t turning back toward the gate.

These days airplanes have TV screens up and down the aisles on which a video is played to make plane-orientation fun. Since most of our flight will be above an ocean, I paid careful attention to the demonstration on life jackets. “Don’t inflate until you’re already outside,” it said, showing a man in a business suit in a flat life vest, standing at the airplane door. He’s smiling broadly as he’s about to jump into the ocean.  I pictured myself floating in the icy water watching our wounded plane go under, much like the Titanic did in the movie.

Traveling is stressful; traveling alone is more so. I had to remind myself that even if our plane went down, my “bottom line” was secure. When it was all over, I knew I’d end up with Jesus.

This morning at breakfast, Evelyn asked a funny question: “Do you think your airplane is going to fall out of the sky?”

I laughed and showed her, with my hand, how my plane would take off, cruise, and then land gently on a runway. Today my flight did exactly that, but even if it hadn’t, my ending would have been a good one.

“We are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:8)