9/24/10
I finally have a chance to sit down and write a little more about our journey so far. We left on Tuesday morning at 5:00 am and headed for the St. Louis airport. We flew from St. Louis to D.C., from D.C. to Bogota and from Bogata to Lima. It was a very long day with lots of running. Our first flight to D.C. was delayed an hour and then we were in the air an extra 30 minutes because of bad thunderstoms in D.C. Once we landed we were stuck on the runway for another 20 minutes. Our flight to Bogata was already boarded and getting ready to take off. We ran as fast as we possibly could to the terminal (I'm really grateful for that marathon training now :) and we were able to make it on the plane. I'm sure this is where the luggage confusion came in.
We finally arrived in Lima at 1:00 am to find that our luggage had not arrived. Some of you can relate, it's a bad feeling when everyone leaves the baggage claim area and the luggage conveyer belt stops and you have no luggage. We were at the airport until 3:00 a.m. trying to deal with the situation. When it became obvious that there was nothing else that could be done, we grabbed a taxi and headed to where we would be staying. We managed to get to bed at 4:00 am and then we were back up at 8:00 a.m. to start a new day :) And that brings us to Thursday.
On Thursday, we met our lawyers, Maria Eleana and Raul, at 2:00 and headed to our meeting with the Psychologist from SNA. I must say, our lawyers are awesome! They are married, and both work together to help children find loving homes. They are just so loving and sweet. We're really looking forward to spending more time with them over the next few weeks. We met the psychologist who was also a very sweet lady. She spent most of the time informing us of what to expect when we get to the orphanage to pick up our little girl. We were told that Lilyanna is having some intestinal problems. Could be from the altitude, the food, etc, they are not really sure yet. I think she just needs her mommy and daddy :)
And then there's Friday. We spent all morning on the phone with airlines. We called 4 airports and both airlines and still no answer as to where our luggage might be. We were told to give them a couple of weeks (not what we wanted to hear). My husband managed to talk the airlines into giving us some kind of compensation so that we could atleast buy warm clothes for our little girl. The airline finally agreed so we were off to the airport once again. On the way there we had to drive thru a really bad slum area. After looking at the conditions that some of those poor people were living in all I could do was pray and thank God for the blessings that Henry and I enjoy everyday. I think it was at that moment that I had peace in not finding our luggage. Even if we never received our luggage I was once again reminded that we have nothing to complain about. A big reality check :)
Once at the airport we made it to the airline office and we're quickly wisked away by the manager. We were expecting to go to the next office but instead he took us to the lost baggage area. And there sat the most beautiful site, four lonely pieces of luggage that just so happened to belonge to us. They had just arrived :) God's timing is perfect! They quickly hearded us off to customs. Somehow, the tags had been ripped off our luggage (which testifies to the miracle of them even getting back to us) and we were told to identify all the articles in each specific bag. This was hard for us because the night before we left we had to quickly rearrange our bags to meet the weight allowence. We could easily tell them what was in all four bags but not each specific one. We haggled with the customs manager for about 10 minutes when he told us that we could not have our bags. Henry and I just looked at each other in amazement and started praying. Seriously, what else can one do at a moment like that. A minute later a young lady who also worked for customs came over after hearing about what was going on. Then another customs worker and then another customs worker. They all started trying to convince the manager to let us have our luggage. We informed them of our situation and that we needed the clothes for our little girl, still the manager would not budge. This continued for several more minutes when right then, in the middle of all of the commotion, the manager just looked up and walked away. For no reason, just like that, he just left. The other custom workers quickly took us thru the line to get us out the door before the manager returned. It worked! Soon, we were out of the airport and headed back home to enjoy a shower and clean clothes.
To summerize, God is good! Nothing would have worked out the way it did if God had not been in control. So, He receives all the credit. And a big thanks to all of you that have been praying for us. Words cannot express how grateful we are to each and everyone of you. Seriously, tears well up in our eyes when we think of all the love and support you have shown us thru this process.
We love you all!! We'll post again soon.
