At Last

Finally, Laurie and Timmie are here in the KSA. It only took 3 months—and that was mainly because Laurie wanted to attend her brother’s wedding which didn’t take place until 19 July. Laurie and Timmie arrived on 27 July—six days after getting their visas.
I asked for the day off and General Faisal said of course I could have Sunday off to pick up and be with my family. Saturday after work I was busy buying all the last minute stuff—at three different stores. I made sure to buy a cake—the most delish are at Danuabe and I bought a chocolate cake filled with chocolate mousse—so delish! I hardly slept that night.
I wake up on Sunday morning making sure the house looked good—it did. I’m ready to go to the airport. The compound provided a driver. He picked me up at 0845—the plane was scheduled to land at 0900 and it takes 20 – 30 minutes to get to the airport—I was a little anxious. We got to the airport in plenty of time and the plane was landing as we were parking—it was 6 minutes late.
I’m standing at Terminal 2 with the abayaa and scarf for Laurie. The first class people are coming thru the doors—I’ve noticed that first class people don’t seem to have luggage or maybe somebody else picks it up for them. The pilot comes through the door. No Laurie or Timmie.
Zidan calls me and asks if everything is going well. I say yes. He tells me that if I have any problems to call him and he’ll translate or talk to the person giving me a hard time—Z is awesome.
Lenny calls me. I tell him things are going fine. He tells me to give the guards a sob story—my wife and habibi are here—first time—I need to help my wife—etc.. I say ok. I wait 5 more minutes—still no Laurie or Timmie.
I take a deep breath and go to the military guard. Tell him my sob story—my wife, I have her abayaa, first time in country, need help with luggage, my habibi. He looks at me. No expression. I’m ready to show him my military badge. Then he waves his hand toward the door. I took that as a “yes” and went thru the door.
The place is full of people waiting for their luggage. I scan the crowd of black robes. No luck—has Laurie changed that much. Then I start looking for a red-hair boy. Nothing. Did they miss the flight? Are they being questioned? Did something happen? Then I look at the immigration area—no one. Wait. There’s one lady in black with a grey scarf and there’s a little boy with red hair—that HAS to be them. But now there’s another guard.
So, I give the same sob story. This guard is very nice. Smiles and points the way. I smile back and thank him. There’s my family. Laurie is filling out the sheet of paper that no one will look at—they didn’t look at mine. Timmie is sitting on the chair looking very unhappy. “Hey boy.” He looks up—a big smile and he runs to me. I ALMOST started to cry. My eyes did get teary. Laurie looks up and looks relived. She finishes the paperwork.
We pick up the carry-on and go to the passport area. The computers are down. We wait and wait—it must have been 20 minutes. Finally the computers come back up and Laurie and Timmie are processed. Now for the luggage.
The airport has workers that get the luggage for you. Laurie points out the luggage. The guy gets it and puts it on the cart. We go through security. Come out the doors. The driver of the compound is waiting. He takes the luggage and loads it in the van while Laurie, Timmie and I go and exchange the US dollars for Saudi riyals (SR). Then we go and get in the van.
We arrive at the villa. Both are impressed with the size. Timmie is impressed with the pool. I keep them up until noon. Then Timmie crashes. Laurie can’t sleep until she puts all of stuff away and is “organized.” I wake them at 4 to go see some sites. It’s like taking zombies with me—their eyes are glazed over and I’m not sure they were paying attention. But the main thing—at last they’re here!