Thank you, kind stranger

Kim, Zach and I went to Michigan to visit my grandparents and extended family at the end of June. Our trip to Michigan took us from Seattle to Minneapolis and then from Minneapolis to Grand Rapids, Michigan. The flight from Seattle left about an hour late due to a mechanical issue that required the airline to bring in a new plane for us. That caused us to miss our originally scheduled flight to Grand Rapids. There were a handful of people on that Seattle flight that were going on to Grand Rapids who ended up missing the same connection we did, and we all sat at the Minneapolis airport on the standby list. If we didn't make that flight, we would be put on a flight the next morning, so we stood to lose a night of our short visit with my family.

Names were called one by one as seats opened up, and a few standby passengers made it, including one of the people on our Seattle flight. Then the airline had to wait for last minute passengers who checked in late or had other connecting flights. The list dwindled to our family and another man from our Seattle flight. I finally got called, but it was only to ask if we'd be willing to split up, which neither Kim nor I wanted to do. We were resigned to our fate of staying a night in Mianneapolis when the kind-hearted man who rode with us from Seattle got called up and told the airline workers to give his seat to us if there were 2 left. It turned out that there were exactly 2 seats left, so we literally got the last seats on the plane. They announced on the loudspeaker - Stebner family, come on down, bring your stuff with you and hurry up, we're about to close the door of the plane. We ran for it and ended up making it to Grand Rapids right about the same time as my mom, Courtney and Chase.

I don't remember the name of the man who was so nice to us and gave us his seat, but I wanted to thank him all the same and let him know that we'll pay this kindness forward when we get a chance in the future. If you were on the Delta flight from Seattle to Minneapolis on the morning of June 24, 2010 and were supposed to go on to Grand Rapids, Michigan at around 3pm that day but gave up your standby seat to an exhausted couple with a 11 month old son - we can't thank you enough!