On my goodness I finally found the email that I had sent to my family after arriving in New Zealand. Here goes ….. Slightly edited to actually make sense
The flight from Durban to Johannesburg was very stressful, firstly being frisked at the airport as my gold bangles must have kept on setting the alarm off while you where all standing there sobbing and then being physically searched on top of that … So embarrassing !!!
Anyway we got onto the plane only to realise my a%$ has grown about 6 sizes since falling pregnant so the chairs are not very comfortable and feel very narrow. I was seated right by the wing..so I got to see any malfunctions before the pilot would … Lovely !!!
The take off took my breath away, literally; it wasn’t what I expected and made my heart race. Poor Jade had to hold my hand cause mommy wasn’t feeling so good. She kept stroking my hand saying “It’s OK mom, its not the end of the world”. Honestly I was so scared of flying I was praying her words were true!
The flight itself was OK. Just weird feeling the plane drop in the sky. Jade loved it, she was an angel and seriously kept me focused. I had to explain to her that we were going to Johannesburg in a baby plane then from Johannesburg to Australia in a daddy plane and from Australia to New Zealand in a mommy plan to see her daddy. She got the baby, daddy and mommy plane but the rest meant nothing to her and she kept frowning when I said New Zealand. I knew that at 3 and a half she was wondering where old Zealand was .
We were lucky enough to have been seated next to a lovely older lady making her way to New Zealand as well, we had a lovely chat and she definitely took my mind off the stress of flying .Getting to the international section was insane as you had to walk forever!!!
Finally get to board the “daddy” plane and oh my goodness its HUGE now the nerves kick in and being pregnant isn’t helping as I am not allowed to drink. The flight itself was very very long with my feet swelling up giving me “cankles” and my braxton hicks were playing tricks on me. Jade refused to sleep so I had to pretend to be sleeping and then she just passed out hahaha, joke was on me though because seconds later I was out for the count.
Arriving in Australia was overwhelming, the whole experience was too much for me to process in that moment and I went straight into autopilot mode and just did what had to be done so we could board our next flight.
Boarding the plane to New Zealand was lovely as I got preference for having a small child and obviously looking like I was going to give birth to another very shortly …. The plane wasn’t full and we were allowed to move to any seat after we had eaten . I thought of wondering off to first class but then didn’t want to run the risk of being arrested for stupidity. Jade and I were once again sitting by the wing this time she wanted to be closest to the window – yay. This was it we were finally going to see daddy again after a very long month . I was so nervous as I have doubled in size and I wasn’t sure if he would recognise the whale holding his daughters hand .
The flight was OK and after being woken up to the announcement that we were landing shortly, well that’s when the excitement really set in ! We were finally going home .
Walking through the sliding doors and seeing his face made me cry . Jade ran to her daddy and he held her so tight . We briskly walked out of that airport never looking back , that was the start of our new life and soon I will have my son and our family will be complete
