When I first came up with the idea to invite friends to join us, I knew who would want to go. My best friend from college, R, and her husband loved to travel and see the world in more intrepid fashion. She always wanted to see India and she wanted to go with us as opposed to with a tour group. My good friend E, also loves to travel and even did the peace corp in the Philippines. She had mentioned she’d love to see India, but with someone from the country. Both R and E are the type who like to immerse themselves in the culture and embrace their new surroundings. I was excited to show them the country I’ve started to adopt as my own.

Both were excited for the trip and started helping with the planning. They were anxiously awaiting my daughters arrival, knowing that would drive the date of our trip. And when she was born and we set our travel dates, both confirmed they were still interested.

A few weeks ago E called. She was looking at tickets and had found the flights she wanted. She had firm dates she could travel and wanted to make sure the flights she was choosing worked with our plans. Knowing her ticket was booked increased my excitement and enthusiasm for the trip. I started looking at my dog eared Lonely Planet India and showing my son the pictures of places we would visit.

That evening R called with some bad news. As a lawyer, she is always busy at work. Recently her work had exploded, and she’s been working insane hours and even all-nighters. She was told by work that she was staffed on a number of new cases and came to the realization that she could not go on the trip. If she went, she would have to work the whole time and with the time difference would not be able to enjoy her time in India.

R and I had traveled together in our pre-kids, pre-husbands Iife and were looking forward to doing it again. To know that she was going to have to miss something we had talked about for years was extremely disappointing for both of us. I know how much she wanted to see India and after our conversation I realized how much I had been looking forward to showing her.

I’ll admit, I mopped for a few days over the loss, even neglecting to mention it to anyone hoping something might change. But over the weekend I was able to regrouped when I saw E. She was so excited for our trip it reinvigorated me. I still get the chance to share this country with a close friend and I know E will appreciate the rich history and culture.

Our plans have altered but the adventure will continue. Time to take out my old Lonely Planet again!