They're Home For Thanksgiving!!

Their rooms were all ready. The bathrooms were clean. Food had been purchased, some items baked. Now all we needed was the last two children to make the family circle complete.

It was a rainy night there and here, but Yessa finished her psych test early, and they caught the bus to the bus station with no problem. A little nice walking around, and they were ready to board their 8:05 p.m. bus for the 3 hour ride home.

Except there was no bus. And the snazzy app that we were all able to use last time to track the bus' progress was not working. There was a little confusion with two other buses around 8:15, which lead to some concerns that their bus had actually left them.

I received a phone call from Buster at 8:20 asking how long they should wait for their bus to show up before abandoning that plan for getting home. (Travel is stressful and his voice was the same as on our international trips when plans would be disrupted.) I tried to help, and reassured them that I would certainly come get them the next day if the bus never showed up.

Got this text from Buster at 9:09 p.m.:

About 5 minutes after that, one of their group of 7 or so people all waiting for the same bus managed to get customer service for Flix bus who said the bus was in Scranton, the stop right before Bing. And shortly after that, our family chat erupted with the following exchange:

I requested a photo of them on the bus, to reassure us.

Buds and I took a couple hour nap, with Monkey at the helm to be sure we got up at the right time. We were waiting patiently when the bus finally pulled into the side street where a crowd of people waited to board and many cars waited for their exiting loved ones. They were only a little over an hour late, so the bus driver made up some time, but Yessa said he was a very safe driver.

By 1 a.m., Buds and I fell asleep to the sound of chatting, laughing, and shrieking from the 3 siblings together downstairs. It's like Christmas came early for our hearts.

We've got many plans for while they are home, but no matter what we do, my soul is full.