She Made It!

Katherine made it to Toronto, but not before I was almost nominated for The Bad Mother of The Year Award...Read below..

This photo was taken yesterday on her first day in Toronto.

Here is the Readers Digest version of a very long story...
All in the name of wanting a direct flight and the half price airline fare, I booked Katherine's flight to Toronto out of MIAMI.
Well...we got there too late and she was not allowed on the flight (The I-95 Traffic Jam, Huge Airport, Unaccompanied Minor Paperwork, and 1 1/2 hour Drive were not a good combination for being on time)
Now, imagine being 13 years old and being SUPER excited to visit dear friends and have an adventure of your life time.
As I was BEGGING the counter clerk to PLEASE let Katherine on the flight and she was trying to be helpful, the tears started flowing on Katherine. I assured her that she WOULD go to Canada before the day was over and that we needed to use all of our energy to figure out a solution rather than for tears. I was so proud of her for understanding that concept and stepping up to be part of the solution.
After some extremely TENSE moments, an addition PAYMENT,  and changing airlines, she was scheduled for another flight at 2:45.
I went to the new Airline Counter, paid the additional fee, and was informed there was NO 2:45 flight...it was at 4:00. Whew...OK...4:00...no problem, what is one more hour.
Ah...sigh...she would be on the way... but oh no... there was MORE...
We arrived at the gate printed on her Boarding Pass and NO TORONTO listing. Santa Domingo, Lima, and LOTS of espanol but NO TORONTO.
When I went to the gate to check in my "Unaccompanied Minor" on her way to TORONTO, I was informed that we were at the wrong Gate (even though the Boarding Pass said we were in the right place) TORONTO was NEVER scheduled for departure or arrival at that Gate. Mmmm
OK...BACK ON THE TRAIN to the Gate at the other end of the sprawling Miami Airport.
At the correct Gate, we checked in and the Boarding began...ALMOST. A Lighting storm was delaying the Loading.
Forty Five Minutes later...she Boarded and was off...SORT OF. They sat and sat and sat, which meant that I sat and sat and sat until finally...they were off and I could leave the Gate Area (I had already been chastised for walking over to look as some books while I was waiting and waiting)
I was told that the flight would still arrive in Toronto on time (what??) so I did not inform Linda of the delay. Consequently...she waited and waited and waited in Toronto to meet Katherine.
After all the start, stop, re-group, re-schedule, run, run, run, Katherine finally made it and she is having the time of her life for the next 10 days.
Because there is always something POSITIVE even when things go totally wrong....Here is the POSITIVE---Watching World Cup Soccer in Miami Airport was TOTALLY FUN. It felt like I was in South America...literally. The entire Airport (workers, passengers, etc) was huddled around every TV Screen in the place. The cheering and excitement took my mind off my small little dilemmas that seemed to pop up at every turn while getting Katherine to her destination.