My God is Lord: One Year Ago - July 9

The Trip Home - Three Angels Along the Way

Originally when we started the process for Jonathan's adoption, we tentatively planned for Sarah to come back with me to bring Jonathan home. But since it was such a short trip with the one-day passport, she decided she would stay home. I was a bit nervous about bringing Jonathan home alone. Not that he was going to get away from me, but what happens when mama has to use the restroom in the airport? I wasn't using a stroller, so it made things a bit more difficult as far as that goes. I was also concerned about the flight for the same reasons.

I had many folks back home praying for me. Some were especially praying for a wonderful, understanding person to sit next to me on the flight. The Lord answered that prayer and sent other angels along the way too.

Angel #1: "Kim"

When I first got to my gate in Kyiv for my 5:35AM flight to Frankfurt (ugh - I loathe that airport), I started chatting with a wonderful lady from Hattiesburg, Mississippi (yes the home of Brett Favre!).She was coming home after court for the adoption of two older children they had hosted. She "happened" to be assigned a seat right across the aisle from me on the flight. She held J for me so I could use the bathroom. She was incredibly sweet.

Angel #2: "Tim" - Adoptive Father of Nine

I met Tim at our gate waiting to board in Frankfurt. I'm not sure how the conversation actually started. I think he commented about how beautiful Jonathan was. (That surprised me a bit, I'll admit.) So I explained about his adoption. He asked if we adopted through RR. Again I was a bit surprised! He explained how he and his wife were in process adopting to older girls with Down syndrome from Kyiv!!! Now, really....what are the chances??? Only God. Their blog is HERE if want to see their sweet girls. (They have also adopted four blessings from China!) So, we chatted for a while and eventually a young woman joined our conversation. She was a German teacher in the States and was going home after spending time in Germany. She shared how she worked at a special needs camp when she was in high school (if I'm remembering right) and thought she would always want to adopt a special needs child. So Tim and I shared about RR. Again...really??? :-) They were both so wonderful. It was a blessing to be able to put down my backpack and carry-on near them, so I didn't have to lug them behind as I "paced" with Jonathan. I think Tim asked for the photo. How very sweet. It was a huge blessing to have someone "safe" to hang out with. Thanks Tim!

Angel #3: "My Lithuanian Angel"

As I said above, many folks were praying about having the right person sit next to me. God answered that prayer! All around me were business men, except immediately to my right was a very sweet, grandmotherly woman from Lithuania. And she spoke perfect English! She had spent a lot of time in the States with her sister who now lived here. Again, she was such a blessing to me. She watched Jonathan for me when I needed to get up and was not at all bothered that his bassinet was in front of her seat too. She even tried to play with him too. We talked about the plight of orphans in Ukraine, Lithuania being a former Soviet country, the Russian language, etc. Thank you Lord for providing this sweet woman to sit next to me!

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Because I was able to book our return flight right after court, I was able to secure "bulkhead seating". It ROCKS!!! Basically, what it means is we sat in the front row of our section, right behind the bathrooms. The extra HUGE bonus of this is a bassinet can be secured to the wall once the plane is in the air. I was able to lay Jonathan down to sleep or rest while I ate or rested myself. He didn't particularly like it as he couldn't roll over, but he was able to get his fingers in his mouth, so that was helpful. :-) He did sleep part of the time.