Along the way were God's blessings that I want to remember. Since our flights were booked so last minute, David and I couldn't sit together on both legs of the trip. What's worse was, when we got to the airport we noticed that our electronic confirmation says that we need to present the credit card with which we purchased the ticket to prevent fraud. We both panicked. We had used my CC for this flight and in an effort to travel with less, I didn't bring it. Even though we were at the airport 2-3 hours before our flight, we really didn't have time to go back and get it.
I just prayed when we got up to the counter - hoping we'd make it through somehow. Thankfully, the agent didn't mention it at all! He just asked for our passports!
Since we were at the counter anyway, I asked the agent if there is anyway we can sit together. The plane is configured in a 2-4-2 seating configuration and he said the only way we can sit together is if he offers 2 middle seats in the 4-seat configuration. We were ecstatic! We were in middle seats separately anyway, middle seats together would be great! Everything is going so well! We didn't have to go home and get the CC and we somehow ended up sitting together, too!
When we boarded the flight somehow the people who were sitting on either side of us are father & son. I think they chose their seats because they thought no one will be in the middle. So if our seats were ABCD, they were AD and we were BC. They found out we were husband & wife and they offered to let us have CD and they took AB! Yay! We somehow got to sit on the aisle!
So we went from middle seats on separate rows to middle seats on the same row to aisle seats on the same row! And the same thing sort of happened on our return trip as well! Originally we were in middle seats on separate rows, but somehow we got 2 seats together all by ourselves (we were assigned to the 2-seat configuration this time). So we got aisle & window seats! Really amazing and I'm so thankful to God!
And as a cherry on top for me - I slept at least 8 hours on each flight. I've never flown this well on an international trip, even when I flew business with the company. I'd nap for 3-4 hours, but never 8 hours. I didn't even have time to watch the movies I wanted to see. :)
As for the purpose of the trip itself. I'm not sure what all the behind the scenes was like, but I felt like everything went peacefully and well. I think being a Christian is really wonderful - death is not the end all. It's sad but not hopeless. So it's more like just saying goodbye knowing you'll meet again later.
I didn't really know David's grandma at all actually. I only met her once last time we were back in Taiwan and by then she was bedridden with tubes going down her throat. I remember feeling sad for her for living in such a state and I've never known her in any other way. So in a way, I feel happy for her -- that she can finally leave her failing earthly shell and put down her earthly burdens.
Anyway, I did take some pictures when we were in Taiwan. Interestingly, I didn't take any of the cremation or the memorial itself. It just didn't feel right, I suppose. Those moments seem so solemn that I didn't even remember to flip out my camera. So apologies - no photos of the actual event here.
![Picture](/uploads/6/8/0/1/6801660/1322544465.png)