Nightmare

It's always been one of my biggest fears...oversleeping and missing my flight. That fear is compounded when most flights out of Bucharest leave early in the morning so it's not unusual to have to set my alarm for 4:00 or earlier. I usually set more than one, just to be sure.

This morning, the first day of spring break, I was scheduled to fly to Barcelona. Last night, I had checked that my alarm was set for 5:00--plenty of time to catch my 9:15 flight--and crawled into bed. In that early morning haze, I was a bit startled that there was already sun shining in my window...not a good omen. Flipping open my cell phone, I see it is now nearly 7:00. This strikes panic in my heart and I race to the bathroom, jump in the shower, and frantically try to think through what needs to be done on my list of everything I wanted to do. Only the essentials. Most of the packing was done, for which I was really thankful. I've been known to leave that for the morning of departure.

As I called at taxi at 7:20, I was thankful that it was Saturday--less traffic. We made it to the airport by 8:00 and by 8:20 I was checked in and through security and passport control. Yeah!

As I sat waiting for boarding, I figured out that I had set my 'weekday alarm' for 5:00--not thinking that because it was Saturday, it wouldn't go off. I'm thankful for just the right amount of sleep and the gentle nudge of God that woke me in plenty of time to get to the airport.