emotional baggage

we finally land on poland ground!

as soon as we leave our final airplane, we head straight to the baggage claim. our plane was a little early, so we had to wait a few minutes before the baggage started to roll out onto the belt and circulate on the giant roulette wheel. chad positioned us at the luggage exit point so he could spot our bags right away. he was prepared with cart and was ready to pounce on the first bag he saw. 

as expected, the luggage claim belt began to move and one by one, suitcases and bags began to take a ride around the merry-go-round in front of eager owners waiting to claim what's theirs.

chad leans forward and grabs his prize! our bag was one of the firsts. we felt like a winner! we knew any minute the other bag, with his name on it, would come heading our way. any minute, we kept thinking...but after sometime our eagerness turned into nervousness. where was our bag? why was it acting like a stubborn child not wanting to do as it was told? then, the worst thing happened. the belt stopped moving! the show was over. we were no longer winners, but losers! chad's bag was no where to be found.

now what do we do? there was one other poor loser waiting there with us who didn't get his bag as well. we started wandering around asking people where we need to go to take care of a lost bag. we managed to find the right area eventually, but chad seemed very frustrated dealing with all their requests for certain paperwork. we later found out that the other end of the stickers for our luggage tags were at the bottom of my very stuffed hand bag. apparently, we are very thorough when we don't need to be, but not so much when it matters.

we finally found out that the bag was in amsterdam and they will deliver it to our hotel later in the afternoon. i'm assuming this happens quite frequently because the previous airport was very chaotic. 

as we left the baggage claim area, we were spotted by chad's co-workers who had been waiting for us for awhile not knowing the bag trouble we were dealing with.

after a rubber-necking ride to our hotel, we finally were in our room. i was ready to shower off the last 24 hours. i arranged my beloved suitcase in the corner of the room and was so grateful to get to change my clothes, but also feeling bad for my husband. i was ready for some yummy smelling bath soap and unzipped my bag ready to dig in! to my surprise, everything in my suitcase belonged to a man...the same man i married 13 years ago! my name tag had somehow been tied to his bag! 

i awarded the suitcase unselfishly to my husband congratulating him on the win! he immediately felt bad and i'm sure relieved at the same time.

my luggage finally arrived late that evening, and i finally had the pleasure of degreasing my hair and changing my very worn clothes!