I am typing this from the counter top of our wonderful apartment in the terrific Humuya Inn. We made it and we have seen our son!
Let me back up until this morning, and perhaps a little bit the night before. Since we had a "rehearsal" of our trip in December, we already knew basically what we needed to do and what we needed to pack. We have since discovered that we have forgotten a couple things, but mostly I think we did very well. We tried to go to sleep a little early, and maybe we succeeded a little bit, but I think all four of us were a bit keyed up about the big day, and had to wind down before really being able to sleep.
It wasn't too much later that the alarm rang: 3:30 to be exact. Our dear friend Diana was going to arrive at 4:00 to drive us to the airport, and we did an awesome job, if I do say so myself, of getting up and dressed and all before she showed up. The boys were pros: you'd think we made early morning international flights every month the way they performed! We got to the airport with no problems, checked in with just a minor delay (one suitcase was overweight so we had to pay a fee on that), went through security, and made it to our gate with time to spare. Not much time though because even in advance of a 6 am flight, there are a lot of people at the airport and a lot of lines. They called us to board, and the two tallest Andersons had to bend down considerably to get into the teeny tiny airplane that was going to get us to Houston. The plane was entirely full, and we were in the last two rows. Jerry was in the row in front of the boys and I, Mario was on the left side of the aisle where there is only one seat, and I was with Erik on the right side of the aisle. We tried to get one boy in a row with one parent, but didn't get any takers on shifting seats. Mario did really great though -- I am extremely proud of how well he did sitting by himself. I wasn't wearing a watch, but I think we were a little late taking off as our plane needed to be de-iced, but we managed to get off the ground and pointed in the right direction before too long. The flight was a little bumpy, but nothing that an airsick bag couldn't take care of. Note to self: get hold of some dramamine for the return flight. This came as a big surprise to us, and it was a blessing that the two people that were sitting next to each other were sitting next to each other. Nuff said: what happens on the airplane stays on the airplane.
We made it to Houston, and seriously hoofed it to get to our connecting gate. It is a very large airport, and moving from one terminal to another takes a while, even with the zippy little tram that the boys really enjoyed. We made it to our gate, and there are no passengers there, just a couple airline employees at the counter. My stomach sunk an inch, before one of them looked up and said, "Oh, you must be the Anderson family. We have been waiting for you." God bless you United Airlines. They had been monitoring our earlier flight and knew what time we landed and knew that we'd be moving fast to get there. What great service! We got on a much larger airplane and got seats so that one boy could sit with one parent, and were all set. Again, it is a very good thing that airplanes come equipped with airsick bags. Note to self: make sure about that dramamine. And nothing to drink on the plane not even a little water unless absolutely necessary. The flight was much rougher than when Jerry and I flew in August. It was a wild takeoff, and apparently we circled around the airport in Tegus at least a couple times before we touched down. The brakes are hard on, because it is a short runway, but I think the landing was even rougher than last time. Anyway, we made it and were very happy to be on the ground. I think there was some serious happy-dancing going on on the walk into the terminal.
We were the last ones off the plane, I am pretty sure, and therefore the last people to go through immigration. We learned that if there is a bathroom emergency, especially involving young children, and if there are no bathrooms in the area before you go through immigration, you can actually leave your passports with the immigration official and go through temporarily to the bathroom, then return and go through officially and get your passports. Just a tip for other families!
Yay, all our luggage made it, and we found Ileana, our agency's in-country representative, as soon as we made it through the glass doors into the main part of the airport. It was about 1:15 at this point, I think, and Ileana said she had good news: we were scheduled to sign the adoption decree the very next morning at 11:00, which means that we need to go meet our son in about 45 minutes. Wow!! Seriously? Wow!! But, what does a hungry family do when they need food in a hurry? McDonald's drive through! Hysterical that we are in Honduras less than two hours and already we are having fast food. We were thinking that we'd have a fast food treat maybe once a week, but given that we have already encountered Ronald McDonald, we might have to up that average. Especially when they let you pick the toy for your happy meal! Better than at home! So we grabbed the food and made it back to our hotel to check in and get our bags into our apartment. Then we grabbed the things we were going to give the foster mother, and drove over to Casitas Kennedy, where we would meet our son and his foster mother, and sign the temporary custody papers. We were a little late, but I guess we were already on Honduran time. Our little one was very shy, and apparently missed his nap too, which doesn't make for a great first encounter. He had grown so much taller too! We came back to our hotel to play and see what would happen. After just a few minutes of shyness, he perked right up and played with us very well. They wanted to give it a little test and see what would happen if the foster mother walked out without him knowing. Well, he was just fine until he realized that she wasn't there. Then he started running around the apartment looking for her and crying. He hadn't seen which way she had left so he didn't know where she had gone. We put on our A-game trying to play and distract him, but it was not working. We gave it a little while, and then decided it would be better for him to spend the night with his foster mother, and we'd see him in the morning for the signing of the adoption decree. This is really what we had thought would be best anyway, to have a transition rather than a dive into deep water, given his young age and the fact that he hadn't seen us in five months. We were sure he had forgotten us completely. Maybe he remembered us a little bit, as he warmed up and started playing with us so quickly, but again, that was when he could keep his eye on his foster mother the whole time.
So they left, we had a little bit for dinner, and got the boys into bed without much delay. All in all, it was a great first day. We knew getting into this that it was going to be a challenging time, and indeed we still believe that. It is such a comfort knowing we are in God's hands. There is no way we could do even a fraction of it without Him.