The Reunion!

I've been needing to blog about the miracle of how we got home from South Carolina just in time to reunite with Aaron after 6 very long months apart. So, without further ado, here's how it all played out:

Thursday morning I woke up early, packed up the car, and headed out with Isaiah to meet Heather (the birthmom) for breakfast at McDonald's (classy, I know, but the oatmeal wasn't half bad). Isaiah was awake the entire time and in a great mood, which was awesome for Heather to see. After a few tears on both our parts, we said goodbye and I headed to the Bethany Christian Services office to pick up some medical records that had just come in. Then I headed to the airport. I had received word that our ICPC paperwork had arrived in Washington at 1:30 on Wednesday afternoon, so I felt confident that I would get word Thursday morning that I could go home. I knew with the time change it might be 11:00 or 12:00, but I decided I could go ahead and turn in the rental car and wait in the rocking chairs at the Columbia airport until I received official word.

So there I sat, waiting and waiting and waiting. No phone call. I ate animal crackers for lunch from the vending machine. I fed and changed Isaiah. Still no phone call. I called Bethany Christian Services and they said they hadn't heard anything, but it was illegal for me to leave without word. At this point I was considering leaving anyway, but I didn't want to be put in jail for kidnapping right as Aaron was coming home. As the day dragged on, there were fewer and fewer flights leaving Columbia that could get me to Seattle, and I was desperate to be in Seattle before Aaron arrived at 8:30 Friday morning.

About 2:30 I got fed up with it all and decided to call the Washington state ICPC office myself to figure out why the heck I didn't have word I could leave. Now, if you've read previous blog posts, you'll realize that contacting an ICPC office is apparently not a good idea. They don't even list phone numbers or contact information for these offices, because they don't want people like me contacting them. But I decided it was worth a shot. So I called the WA social services office, which directed me to the child abuse and neglect hotline. When they man who answered asked if I was calling to report abuse or neglect, I didn't know quite what to say. But I told him I was looking for the ICPC office number. After about 10 minutes of confusion where he was still trying to figure out why I was calling him, he came to understand the situation and stayed on the phone with me for another 10 minutes until he figured out the number of the ICPC office. Call him Angel #1. So I called the ICPC office and a woman answered on the 4th ring ... and as soon as I said my name, she said, "Oh! I'm signing your paperwork right now!" I nearly cried and booked my plane ticket right then and there online. That's when things got interesting.

My flight was supposed to leave Columbia in an hour for Charlotte, NC, where I would catch a nonstop flight to Seattle and arrive at 9:30pm. I went up to the ticket counter to check in, where they informed me that the flight I had just booked 2 minutes earlier was delayed, and I would be unable to make the connection in Charlotte. And there were no other flights leaving Columbia that would get me somewhere that could get me to Seattle until the next day. Not cool. I thought about canceling that flight and booking a flight on another airline, until I checked and the price had doubled in 10 minutes to $850 for a one way ticket, plus the price of the ticket I would be canceling. So not cool. Right about this time I started getting pretty angry and upset, wondering what the heck God was thinking. And then my phone rang.

Kitty, the woman I had been staying with for the last week while we waited for word that we could fly home, called to see if I had been able to catch a flight home yet. When I told her the situation, she told me to stay put, she would be there in 15 minutes, and we might have enough time to drive to Charlotte, NC, and make the connecting flight if we hurried. In the back of my mind I'm thinking, "How can a grandma drive fast enough to get me to the airport in time to make a flight that leaves in 2.5 hours?" But I was willing to give it a shot. Little did I know that Kitty (a.k.a. Angel #2) could drive 85 mph all the way to Charlotte and get there 15 minutes sooner than the GPS predicted time. Which is awesome, because the airline told me that if my bags weren't checked 45 minutes prior to departure, I wouldn't be allowed on the flight. I arrived 47 minutes prior to departure, checked my bags outside, and rushed to security where they had a family line. No waiting in lines! Yay! Then the carseat got stuck in the x-ray machine and broke the machine. Not cool. So I'm standing there with Isaiah trying to put my shoes on when a stranger came up and put my shoes on for me and tied them and everything (she's "Angel #3). Finally they got the carseat out and I rushed to the airline ticket counter. The plane was delayed a few minutes, so I had just enough time to change Isaiah's diaper and feed him a bottle before we had to board. And just enough time for the pilot (Angel #4) to notice us and tell all the flight attendants to take good care of me, which meant I got two free 33oz. bottles of water and a free meal on the flight! Unbelievable! It was like all these people were watching out for me and Isaiah, making sure we made it home.

I arrived at the airport around 9:45 and two guys from church (Angels #5 and 6) were there to pick us up and carry our bags. Cold and rain never felt so good. I made it to my house about 11:00 Thursday night, got to see my parents and give Malachi a kiss while he was sleeping, and then woke up the next morning to pick Aaron up from the airport. He'd had an adventure of his own. He was in Hawaii and his plane left about 2 hours before the tsunami wave hit Hawaii. But his flight had been delayed and he arrived in San Francisco at 6:11am and his next flight left at 6:29. Again, God was watching out for him, because the gates were right next to each other and he sprinted 50 feet and boarded. So at 8:30 Friday morning I got to pick my husband up at the airport in Seattle, and bring him home to meet his new son and reunite with Malachi (who, unbelievably, still remembered him!). It was an amazing moment to have our family together.

What a journey it was, and I'm still having words with God about how He could have made this process of coming home slightly less stressful. But then, it wouldn't be as good of a story, and it wouldn't have stretched my faith, and I wouldn't have gotten to meet all the "angels" who helped us out along the way. In the end, I'm just grateful that we made it home. God is good, and He did work some miracles to make it happen. Thank you, Lord!