01-03-25 - Finally, after a longer break, I began to write on "My Story" again. Here is a short piece from today:
"The flight to Chicago began with a lot of stress at the Munich International Airport. We had to arrive early because of our French Bulldogs. It was very difficult to see them being taken away after their crates had been thoroughly checked and then placed on a luggage cart. I was so afraid something could happen and one or both of them wouldn’t survive this flight.
I don’t recall exactly why and how it happened but T.C. and I managed to almost miss our flight. The only reason that we still made it was a couple from Japan that must have been so important that the airplane was waiting for them to arrive. I still see T.C. running as fast as he could, with his silver hard shell suitcase on his right shoulder. The moment we stepped into the airplane was the exact departure time.
T.C. didn’t feel well at the beginning of the flight. Being very tall he couldn’t find space for his long legs. Luckily, a very friendly traveler offered him to switch seats. That was such a relief.
When we arrived in Chicago, we had to go through a special immigration checkpoint. I remember us sitting on a bench that had a sign on the wall behind us. Right above our heads it said: “For Immigrants Only”. We had to sit on that bench for quite a while until we were called to a counter where we had to give fingerprints of all 10 fingers and sign more paperwork. The man who handled our case would have still been able to decide that we weren’t allowed to become permanent residents and to live in the USA, even after the more than two-year-long immigration process. He was not friendly. I couldn’t see one smile.
But everything was fine and we could continue our path through the airport. We had to go through another checkpoint where we had to present important paperwork and sign more documents. After this was done, we proceeded to walk towards the exit while looking for customs. For whatever reason, maybe because of a mix of fatigue, nervousness and excitement, we missed the spot where we were supposed to pick up our dogs. Once we went through the exit, we had a problem. We were not allowed to go back in and it looked like the Frenchies would have to stay in quarantine for several weeks before we could pick them up. In addition to this problem, we couldn’t find the requested documents from our veterinarian.
After about 20 Minutes, a flight attendant from the airline we had traveled with went back into the airport with T.C. to find out if there was an option to pick up the Frenchies. First, T.C had to find the lost paperwork. He went to the second checkpoint where we had presented the paperwork but it wasn’t there. T.C continued walking through the airport when he all of a sudden recognized my handwriting on a big envelope. The envelope with the missing documents was just lying on some small counter in the middle of the very busy Chicago O'Hare International Airport. T.C. went to customs and there he found the Frenchies patiently sitting in their crates, one on top of the other. He placed them on a luggage cart and rolled them back outside. He looked so very relieved and happy and I was equally relieved and happy."
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