The Stress of Japan

I thought I would write down the full story, I know everyone knows a bit of it, but here is the whole thing....
Dan flew out last Friday to Japan to pick up Taylor and Ava for his three weeks of visitation. He was suppose to fly back to the United States on Monday. Cheryl (who is Dan's ex wife) offered to drive the twins and Dan to the airport Monday morning due to her not having the twins completely packed on Sunday when he picked them up. So that way she would bring him the suitcase and get to say goodbye to them before they left. Dan didn't object because he needed the suitcase and he would not have to take a taxi. Well she was suppose to be there Monday morning at 5 a.m. but she did not get there until 7:15 a.m. they RUSHED to the airport and Dan and the twins got on the first airplane with 10 min's to spare. AHHHH! Cheryl told him everything was in the suitcase, so Dan assumed "everything" meant "everything!" But when he got into Tokyo and was checking them in to leave Japan Taylor and Ava's passports were not in the bag.... they would not let him fly with out them. So the situation was that now he had flown to mainland Japan, Cheryl was still on the island of Okinawa and he was stranded.
I got the call at about 12:15 that morning and you can just imagine how upset he was. Dan is NOT a potty mouth, but he was letting it flow! Understandable! The airline told him if he did not get on the plane that they could not reimburse his tickets ($4,500 down the drain). So when I was talking to him I told him that he just needed to go to a hotel and relax because there was nothing we could do at that point. AND THERE WAS NOTHING!
We tried for the next 10.5 hours to get ahold of Cheryl and could not. Finally at 10:30 the following morning she called me and I let her know what was going on. She said she had "forgotten" to put them in the bag. AHHHHHHHHHHHH! So here Dan was stuck in the heart of Tokyo (non american anything) with the twins (by the way the twins were going crazy). He did get a hotel room but an average Japanese hotel room is nothing like an American hotel room. It was a 10 x 10 room with one single bed... and I think it may have had a bathroom... but I am not sure.
Of course I was calling people like crazy. My friend Jen Zatani who was a former Marine and stationed in Okinawa Japan told me about the AMC terminals on Mainland Japan and that no matter what he needed to get there. It is an American Military Base and at least he would be in American surroundings. So the next morning I had to have Dan go back to the Tokyo Airport and catch a bus to Yokota, Japan (where the base is located). The only problem was Dan got back to the airport at 10:00 in the morning and the bus was not leaving until 4:00 that night. The twins and Dan had to wait outside until they could board. YOU CAN ONLY IMAGINE THE STRESS AT THIS POINT.
In the mean time I have Cheryl working on seeing about MAX flights back to the United States (these are military stand by flights), I have Dan's Dad calling Continetal Airlines and screaming at them about not refunding the tickets or at least hearing the situation out so they could rebook and get home, and I am the go between for every call. So needless to say that for the first 48 hours my sleep was 15 min's here, 15 min's there. And that combined with being prego was just not the best combo.
The first plan we could come up with is that a MAX flight would take Dan back to Okinawa on Thursday morning and then on Saturday he would have a 20% chance of getting on the flight andit would bring him as far as Seattle. Not the best, but it was all we had. Cheryl offered to let them stay at her house until then because she was sponsering a family, which means she would not be home. So at least they would have a place to stay. There were times I just wanted to BLOW up at her, but I just kept telling myself to chose my battles and this was not the time for anything other than "What can we do to get them home?"
Dan's dad called me yesterday morning and told me that Contenintal was FINALLY willing to transfer the flights and all we had to do was call in (either Dan or myself) and book the reservation. BUT they could only fly him out of Tokyo. I was on the road home (because the boys and I had being staying in Richmond seeing as how that is where Dan was going to fly back with the twins). So I had my sister Buffy call the Airline and act like me. She said the first avaliable flight they could get him on was August 25th but it was a 100% guarentee he would get home AND they would fly him back to Richmond! I almost started crying. Even though it is still almost a week away, he will be coming home and the twins will be coming with him! So I called Cheryl and let her know and she will now be flying on a MAX flight sometime in the morning tomorrow to bring Dan Taylor and Ava's passports!!! So he will FINALLY have them.
So he will be coming home in 6 days. He will be missing Benson's first day of Kindergarten, he will have spent half of his visitation in Japan, and he will actually be flying back on his birthday. BUT he will be coming home!
His mom will be picking them up from the airport on the 25th and then she will actually be bringing them back to NC so I will not have to make the drive, plus with Benson in school I did not know what I was going to do. Thank Goodness for moms!
Thank you to everyone who was just there for us through thoughts, prayers, calls letting me know you were thinking of us. I can't even explain the emotions that Dan and I have gone through because of this.
Now granted it really is not over, we have to have him stay in a hotel until then and he can't stay where he is now due to all the rooms being reserved here in a day or two, so there is still some stress, but at least the main part is gone! YEAH!