Highlights from the trip to get Lovely

From Lovely's Papa:
Once your child arrives home after 2 years of waiting, everything before seems like a blur. We anticipated this, so we realized that we wouldn't possibly be able to remember everything from the trip. I wrote a blog before we left remembering our trip to get our older son in 1986. This trip was no less of an adventure. During our travel and time in Haiti, we wrote "bullet points" on the notepad app of our iPod. The following are some of the highlights we wrote down to remember.
*reminiscent of our trip to Ecuador in '09, we were stopped by the TSA and Shelly's bag was searched because Nutella apparently bears a resemblance to C4 explosive. Who knew? (They kept the Nutella) This was particularly sad because it was intended as a gift for our orphanage director and his wife. :(
*Much to our surprise, we wound up on a "prop plane" just like going to get our older son. We rode this plane all the way from Portland to San Fransisco. For those of you who know Shelly and her travel sickness.......this was less than comfortable. But God provided a beautiful distraction as we put one earbud to each of our heads and listened to Rich Mullins rocking out with: "on the verge of a miracle" as we embarked on our journey to bring our daughter home! This song was particularly meaningful as it was some of the music Shelly listened to as she walked each day grieving the death of our other Haitian daughter over 12 years ago.....and our Beloved Dannielle just 5 years ago~
*We once again sat in the airplane for an unusually long time for the flight from Miami to Port au Prince(see previous post) before the pilot finally announced that the plane had a water leak and we'd be waiting for it to be fixed. We finally did take off and we were on our way out of the country.
*Life is not fair. We've learned that lesson in multiple ways over and over, but Lovely's situation once again reinforced that truth. We discovered multiple "opportunities" to show grace to others and forgive as we've been forgiven. At the top of that list is the fact that due to someone's mistake, Lovely could have been free to leave Haiti and come home more than 10 months ago.....
*We landed in Port au Prince, were picked up by our driver without incident, and arrived at the orphanage. We quickly tossed our stuff in our room and headed for the Creche to get Lovely. She was obviously glad to see us and came instantly to Shelly. It took about two hours for her to begin calling us "Mama" and "Papa" again, and she's never stopped! (now about 300 times each day....but it still sounds sweet!)
*She loved all the things we brought her from the U.S. On the top of her list were the books, especially the ones we used to learn Creole, and her dolly. (she called it "pope", the Creole word for doll). She carried the books around and asked us how to say everything....in Creole and in English.
*She adored almost any food, but finally put her foot down and refused when Shelly put cooked spinach on her plate at dinner.
*She napped each day falling asleep to Rich Mullins and Michael W. Smith: again, the same music Shelly listened to while grieving the loss of each of our other daughters. Shelly also used this as her "walking music" as she pounded the treadmill each day anticipating the day when we'd be bringing Lovely home.
*We took her down to the Creche one last time to say goodbye and she happily waved to her nannies saying "aurevoir", then clung to us as we walked back to our room.
*The orphanage director handed her a Haitian flag on a stick and she carried it with her, waving it in the airport until we boarded our plane to Miami. We made it through all the document inspection both in Haiti, and in Miami. It wasn't quick, but it was effective. (for those of you adopting who have asked for how long this took: it was about 45 minutes in Haiti and 2 1/2 hours in Miami)
We landed in the hotel room in Miami about 4:00 on Tuesday, Feb. 21st. Lovely was giddy! She thought it was our "home". So much so, that she cried when we left it for the airport the next morning. We did our best to explain to her that home was coming. That first night on U.S. soil, it seemed like a dream to us, and it must have been similarly unreal to her as she watched us pick up the telephone, speak to someone, and 30 min. later a pizza showed up at the door! She certainly voiced her approval of that part of her new life!
*Due to God's wonderful provision through the generosity of friends, we were able to schedule an overnight layover in Denver (where our adult son, Julian, and his family live). Elijah and his Grandma flew to Denver from Portland to meet us. All of us stayed in the hotel overnight together and had a quick but wonderful family reunion! Lovely and her niece (who are both 2 and just one month apart so we think we'll just call them cousins!) Joslynn, connected fabulously (they have similar fashion passions.....)and the whole family was thrilled to be together.
*The last flight towards home had just made it up into the air when we heard the words "if there are any medical professionals on board would you please let the flight attendant know!" NOT what you wanna hear at this point in your travels.....and ended with "please stay seated while the Paramedics enter the plane" ...making us even a little more delayed and some of us even more airsick :-) BUT thank goodness the person was fine!
We arrived touching down to an incredible welcome of friends and family in the Portland airport! And dinner already at home in our fridge! We were moved beyond the ability to speak and so grateful for friends multiplying our joy over any level we could have believed it would reach.
*Thanks to all of you who have read our posts, followed our story, prayed for us and with us, and watched with interest as Lovely's story unfolded. We appreciate you and pray for God to fulfill your dreams as richly as He has ours!

Jim