Here we go again (from Jim)

As I anticipate our trip to Haiti......on Saturday, I can hardly believe that we are this close to actually "Bringing Lovely Home"!!! I'm reminded of over 25 years ago, when we flew from Portland to Little Rock, Arkansas to bring our older son, Julian, home. We had arranged our trip, arrived to the airport in plenty of time, and boarded our plane bound for Houston, TX, where we would then connect to Little Rock. We sat on board for what seemed like an unusually long time and visited with each other. After about an hour, the pilot finally announced to us that there was a problem with the plane and they were trying to fix it. We waited another hour wondering if we really wanted to fly on a plane that had just been repaired. then we heard again from the pilot that we would be allowed to go back into the airport and wait there for the plane repair to be finished. All of us waited there for another 2 hours before the announcement eventually came that our plane would not be leaving that evening. We were crushed! We had an appointment the next day to stand before an Arkansas judge for our adoption! If we didn't fly that night, we wouldn't make that appointment. The airline staff told us that we needed to reschedule our flight, and that we had to go out to the main ticket counter in the entrance to the airport to make those arrangements. I quickly handed our bags to Shelly, and literally sprinted out to the ticket counter. Fortunately, I was in far better shape then and therefore was one of the first to arrive at the counter to reschedule. We were assigned to another flight the next morning routing through Kansas City. We spent the night on the benches in the airport and boarded our flight uneventfully. The flight, however, took much longer than scheduled, and we arrived in Kansas City one full hour late. Before leaving Portland, we had been able to get word to the social worker about our delayed flight and were trusting that she would be able to reschedule our judge appointment for the time while we were scheduled to be in Little Rock. We landed in K.C. fully expecting to have to reschedule our flight once more, but instead were met by a flight attendant who ushered us quickly off the plane telling us that the connecting flight had been held until our arrival. Even with our very limited flight travel experience, this sounded highly uncommon to us that an entire jet would be held for two passengers. In spite of that awareness, we breathed a prayer of thanks that our flight was still going to happen. We were escorted out of a door, down the stairs, and literally out on to the runway! With shock and surprise, we found ourselves led up to a tiny 16-seat plane where our luggage was placed in a closet near the front, and the pilot smiled at us before closing the curtain.....yes I said "curtain", separating him from us and the other 14 passengers. We found our seats among the people who had been sitting for over an hour waiting for us. There was one aisle with one seat on each side of it, and 8 rows. We sat directly over the wing across the aisle from each other and traveled from Kansas City all the way to Little Rock in this way. We tried to visit with each other, but the noise was deafening and we couldn't hear each other due to the massive 18 inch distance between us. On the good side, we got a great view of the countryside as we flew about 50 feet off the ground, and also finished with bragging rights regarding our having been in apparently every city large enough to have a post office on the route between Kansas City and Little Rock. We literally landed and took off at least 7 times! Finally we landed in Arkansas, met up with our social worker, and learned that our appointment had been rescheduled quickly enough that we would only have to remain in the state for one day later than our planned return flight. That night, our wonderful son,Julian, was placed in our arms for the first time at 8 days old! We did get to meet with the judge, and everything with that went fine. The return flight was not all together straightforward, but that's a story for another time. Needless to say, I was stressed, worried, and convinced our adoption would be crippled by all the hassles. And that was with a "simple" domestic adoption! I was amazed at how these things were no problem for God to overcome, and everything we needed to do still managed to be addressed. That's how He does things. So, here's to whatever happens on our way to get Lovely. Ultimately, the standard for success is the celebration of having our daughter here home with us. So let the adventure continue, it always makes for a good story!
Jim