Reunion at Heathrow! (A London airport)

We made it! Which actually wasn't ever my worry, standing outside Terminal 3 waiting and praying that I would see Steve...that was my worry. Steve and I took separate flights. No...it wasn't because we worried that if one plane went down...the kids would at least have one parent. It was all because of money. Steve was on a time constraint with work to book his ticket. His trip and plans had to go through the Embassy here in England because of work and they had to have time to okay his trip. At that time we didn't have someone to stay with the kids for sure. As soon as our friends, the Roylances, agreed so gracious to be tortured for a week by my kids, we went to book the same flight. But....it was just under $2,000 (a flight directly to England from SFO). Obviously, I decided to take a much...much...much cheaper flight that simply took me through Dallas, which is a great airport, which would arrived only an hour later than Steve. Since we would not have our cell phones over there...way too expensive to use them, and frankly not worth the cost...we decided on our ridiculous plan. He would get in at 7am, get the rental car and come and pick me up outside of American Airline baggage. What were we thinking?! We assumed, and you know what they say about assuming anything, it would be just as easy as that. But, England's airports aren't like the US airports. We had been to England before, but a different airport and that time we were together...so we didn't really pay attention to the confusing arrival areas and the lovely lines that can form at Customs. The biggest over site for us was the possibility of late flights. Again, what were we thinking?! It's not like Steve and I are rookies to flying, or international flying too. Also, Steve was flying United...which is the worse airline in the world. I repeat, the worst airline in the world. We have unfortunately had our fair share of problems with them to know this for a fact. Anyway, my flight from Dallas did leave a little late, and Steve did text me right after he took off (oops) to let me know they got off 2 hours late because of who knows why. We both had to do a "holding pattern" before we landed because of fog. Not really knowing all of this at the time, I stood outside for close to an hour wondering if Steve got in...was he in Customs...did he go to another baggage area thinking it was American Airlines...did he know where to go at all (he was in a different country)? After standing there thinking about all of this, asking at least 5 different people if this was the only American Airline baggage claim pickup, and wondering every other minute...what if I never hook up with Steve...I turned my head to find him walking across the street. I never was so relieved. We hugged, we kissed, and then told each other our stories. Lesson learned; "Never fly separately unless you have working cell phones".