Disaster (the Cluff curse) strikes again.

We were all at the hospital today getting the paperwork filled out for this upcoming delivery when we found out my brother-in-law, in England, had called Hyrum's office. Now, that was really suspicious and a bit unsettling because why would he be calling Hy's work unless something tragic or important had occurred. Last time we got a call from Edward on our cell phone, he was giving us an update on Daisha's condition after she had almost died of complications when delivering her baby. Out of two evils, I hoped it was something important regarding our forthcoming vacation to their house outside of London rather than imagining something had happened to the family. Sure enough, we discovered that the Cluff traveling curse had yet again made us its target. In the message Edward told us that (after years of saving money for our London vacation, countless times of promising we'd be out in a few months only to have to retract the promise, and after spending roughly $3,500 on tickets for the family) our airline (Zoom...stinking UK-Canada airline) had declared bankruptcy and wasn't giving refunds. I was shocked, stunned, amazed, disappointed, furious and incredulous all in one instant. Hyrum's comment was "Well, there's $3,500 down the drain", then he ran out of the room and started making calls.

I had saved cash and deposited it in the bank, then Hyrum had paid for the tickets with a credit card and paid off the card with our bank debit card. Thank goodness for that because since we'd paid with a credit card, that company reimbursed our money. I was terrified the money would be lost and by the time we could raise the money again, we'd have too many kids to make the trip possible or bearable. Thankfully we got our money and when we got home, Hyrum researched tickets and bought us new ones with a different airline. Thank goodness the tickets weren't a massive difference in price.

We had chosen Zoom because the kids' tickets were free (aside from taxes and such), but Zoom is reputedly terrible...about the equivalent of having to stick your arms out the window and help flap the plane's way to England. Hyrum picked the best deal he could and it ended up being $500 more than our Zoom tickets, but the airline is way better (we're flying British Airways) and we can fly comfortably. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise. We'll be flying out a week early now and staying about 3 weeks (Sept. 7- Sept. 26). I CAN NOT WAIT!!! I've never been out of the US before, and have never had a desire to do so, but I'm really excited to go to London since Daisha and Edward live there and they can be our guides and hotel. I only get to see Daisha every couple of years, so I'm anxious to catch up on years of neglected sisterly, face-to-face contact (although I did see her a couple of weeks ago for a day and a half during her US vacation, which was only a tease). Plus, I'll get to visit my cousin Angi again when we go down to San Fransisco to fly out, though she doesn't know it yet.

I did mention the Cluff curse before, and after this last incident, I'd have to say I'm more convinced of its existence than I am the existence of strange phenomena in the Oregon Vortex (if you read that post).