The day has finally arrived! My mom is here safe and sound.

Her flight was to arrive in Amsterdam at 7:40am this morning, but I checked to see if it was on time via Northwest Airline’s website. The website said the plane would get there early. Good thing I checked because it made the difference between the 5:02am train and the 5:42am train.

I wasn’t sure how long it would take her to be cleared through customs or collect her luggage, so I was guessing as to which train I should take. The arrangement was that we were to meet at the “meeting point” in the train station if I wasn’t waiting for her outside of the baggage area. The train station is about 100 meters away from the baggage area and clearly marked in English so she wouldn’t have trouble finding it.

I ended up taking the 5:02 train hoping that I would be able to wait for her outside the baggage claim. I arrived at the airport, checked to see she was at the meeting point, and headed to the toilet. Amazingly, I was just checking the arrivals monitor when she called out my name after leaving baggage. She really did arrive early! It was so fortunate that we were able to connect up right then as I could have been in the bathroom and missed her completely.

Needless to say, we headed north to Groningen after a brief tour of the airport – actually, the trains get cheaper after 9am so we had some time to kill – and are back in my warm little home having tea. Mom is a bit tired, but is hoping the jet lag won’t put a damper on her energy or enthusiasm.

She will be emailing our family back home occasionally and I’m going to include some of her comments in my blog so you’ll get a fresh perspective on our life here. And she brought her digital camera (actually it’s Dad’s camera) and we’ll finally have photos to post. Yea!