Well yesterday was quite a stressful day. Rick was working and Caden was supposed to arrive in Austin at 9:18 pm. So Rick had a guy come in at 8 to replace him and we would make it in time to see Caden come down the escalator. Well I typed in his flight number from the DR to Atlanta and all was well. It was scheduled to leave on time. I then typed in his next flight from Atlanta to Austin and it said cancelled. I was not sure what to do! I am a member of the DR West facebook page so I hurried and put on there that my son was coming to Atlanta and his Austin flight was cancelled and was anyone else in that boat. I had responses of concern and a couple said their sons were coming into San Antonio and Houston. I quickly asked the San Antonio one what the flight number was. After getting that, I called Delta but I did not have Caden's confirmation number so they could not help me. Rick sent me the email address of the mission office so I sent an email and then he had a number so I called and sweet Sis Pinegar answered. I told her the situation and that all flights to Austin were cancelled. She said they would have to try and get a hold of Caden and put him in a hotel and try and get him out the next day. I did not want this option. Getting on a shuttle, staying in a hotel, shuttling back are all more chances of getting the virus. I told her that we were close to San Antonio and if they could get him on that flight we would get him. She hurried and called the area travel and they issued another ticket for Caden to catch the San Antonio flight which left earlier than his Austin flight. Of course, with no cell phone we could not tell Caden the change and had no way of knowing if he was aware. The church and Rick were both calling the airport and paging him but he never heard any of them. What happened was he was told his Austin flight had been cancelled but they could try and get him on the other flight but then they saw that was cancelled. As she was checking, she said oh, you actually have a ticket to San Antonio. Caden then had to get to another part of the airport fast and he made it. The plane was leaving at 7:07 and with seven minutes to spare I get a call from a Florida number. Caden was calling from the plane (a nice lady let him use her cell) and he wanted to make sure we knew there had been a change. I was so relieved and grateful to get that call. I had been praying all day that he would somehow make it! I immediaely dropped to my knees in gratitude. Then the sweet mother of the other Elder going to San Antonio got my cell number because we knew we would be late. The other doc came in at 7:30 but it still takes 1:40 minutes to get to San Antonio airport. She was keeping me updated and told me they would not leave him alone. We pull up and the airport was dead, but there was this little group of two missionaries and a mom and a couple kids. I was able to exhale when I saw him and knew that he indeed was safely here. We brought him home and left all of his luggage in the garage in case he brought home any unwanted bugs. We have been washing everything and putting away until we get the next assignment. I am assuming we will have to get a few more things because in the states, you most likely wear a suit and long sleeve shirts. He has golf pants and short sleeve shirts. He is going to help Rick remodel the bathroom and he is going to try and learn a bit on the Uke. Blake was able to see him from a distance. He seems to be in good spirits but also really sad he was only in two areas in the DR. I think being on lockdown for the last two weeks was actually good, he said that was miserable and made it easier to leave.
This was Elder Wolf, Caden's current companion and quarantine buddy. They played a lot of chess and yatzee during the lockdown.
This was the Bishop and he called the boys the UBER they needed to take to be at the temple at 8:30 yesterday morning. He loved Caden's tie collection so Caden let him go through and pick one to keep. Caden left us wearing that cactus tie and he returned wearing it. He said he planned that. Well we will see what the next adventure for this boy will be!
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