Josie.
Our very first trip to Haiti in 2012 introduced us to Josie. Her sister Margaret is Thomas's wife.
In our emails back and forth, Thomas mentioned his sister in law operating an orphanage. In the beginning of this whole deal, we were so very naive and if I believed we somehow had any control on the timing of this adoption, I would say we lost valuable time in our naiveté. We did not know how adoptions from Haiti worked, but we thought it would be great to have some connection to the orphanage that we adopted from and thought we could match the orphanage to an agency or request out of a specific orphanage. All of that proved to not be the case and the laws actually changed while we were in our first years of the process, but that notion is what had us asking Josie on that first trip, if she did adoptions at her orphanage. She did not and it was not something she had ever wanted to do. But, she said she would think about it. I said, ok, not knowing until THIS trip, 7 1/2 years later, what transpired after we asked or why she had never done adoptions and had not wanted to ever do them. I told my parents when we got back that I'm not entirely convinced that Josie is not an actual angel. Sounds hokey maybe, but I've never met anyone like her.
I'm skipping a whole bunch here to jump to the bulk of this particular trip. It's hard for me to write about the details without some background, though.
We left McPherson on Friday, Jan. 10 early enough to meet my parents for lunch and get to the airport for our 4:50pm departure. Preparing to leave for nearly 10 days took some work and planning obviously, but it all went so smoothly. My mom and dad could come for the entirety of the time to take care of Cory and Caleb. Autumn had been back at school for the week and Elijah was heading to school that weekend also. Everyone would be taken care of. The gym preparation had been years in the making. We had been anticipating and planning for this week and I can't tell you the peace we had driving away knowing our business that had consumed our lives for 7+ years was in capable, reliable hands. What a blessing.
Kansas City was set to have some weather coming through that evening but we expected to get out before it got too bad. We had a hotel booked for Miami that night and were VERY much looking forward to dinner on the beach. Lunch with the boys and Elijah's girlfriend Maddie and my parents was wonderful. They would be staying together that night and heading to the KU game together the next day thanks for a generous friend! The weather was getting sketchy but still rain and Autumn and her friend decided to come to KC that night instead of in the morning for the game. That created some housing issues since I had booked them an Airbnb for 6, not 8. It was a pricey lost, but we had to cancel the house and got them a couple hotel rooms in Lawrence. Once that was all taken care of, we headed out. A prayer together in the entryway of the Chili's caused some tears. Hugging the boys and my parents goodbye was tough knowing we'd come back changed.
Got to the airport, checked our bag, got through security, sat down and within minutes heard on the PA system that the flight to Miami had been cancelled and to head to the ticket counter. I was not thrilled. We got into line probably 30+ people back and called Chelsi to see what we could do. They were not allowing planes to land so our airplane that would take us to Miami never made it to KC. So after a call to American, several calls to Chelsi, thinking we could still get out that night and then realizing that would not be happening, led us to a flight that put us into Port Au Prince a full 24 hours after our original flight. To say I was heartbroken is an understatement. Logistically, we cancelled our Miami hotel, booked a KC hotel, picked up our checked bag and called our shuttle and informed Roby and Josie of the change of plans.. By the time we got to our hotel, the snow was falling and we made it to our room at which point I cried onto Chad's shoulder for a few minutes lamenting that I was so tired of being patient. We ordered food and spent the night and most of the next day in bed. We had to check out of our room at noon and spent the next few hours in the lobby watching the KU game that our family was at just an hour away. Our flight was again at 450PM and that flight felt like deja vu but we got out of KC without any trouble. Landed in Miami and got our shuttle to the hotel with a 5am wakeup to make our flight to PAP. I didn't sleep well that night. Lots of heart racing, thinking and praying. That morning everything went smoothly and we took off on time, heading to a place that now feels like home and people that will forever be a part of our lives.
Taking off from Miami knowing our kids are at the end of this part was a mix of emotions. We were both nervous and for me a very different feeling from previous trips. Landing in PAP, on the 10th anniversary of the earthquake, which is the day Chad and I started looking into adoption more seriously, felt heavy and meaningful. We were flying back from a conference that day and I remember watching the news in the airports. At the time, adoptions in Haiti were closed indefinitely as they worked to recover from the devastation, but for us that was the catalyst that sent us down this path. It was no long a matter of if, but when from that day forward.
Next up...anticipation vs. reality
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