THE JOURNEY HOME

After much thought and trying to get our lives more settled into a routine, I am ready to share about our trip to get Ellie.

Tuesday Jan 12, 2010: Haiti had a 7.01 earthquake

I was standing at my kitchen sink rinsing dishes when i got a text from another adoptive mom from our orphanage that Haiti had a major earthquake. My heart just dropped. Suddenly my world stopped and all that mattered was finding out if my baby girl was still alive. A frenzy of emails, text messages , and Facebooking began. I am still in awe at how information came flying across Facebook. And even more amazed at how many friends stayed up with me praying for the children's safety. It was so reassuring to know I was surrounded by people who cared about our family, and about my Ellie. I have never had so many comments than I did with this whole ordeal.

Wednesday Jan 13, 2010:
@ 1am I got the news that all the children, including Ellie, at our orphanage were alive, safe, and unharmed by the quake. I finally took a breath and shed many tears. The O had cracks in the walls but it was still standing! Everything around it was in rubble. Todd and I said a prayer of thanks! We somehow managed to go to sleep. But I didn't sleep for long. I got up and first thing I did was monitor and read all activity from the night. Now that we knew our kids were safe, how were we parents gonna get them home? Was that even possible? Man, the feelings of, "I just want to hold my little girl and tell her it's going to be alright and I love her", were so overwhelming and driving ALL us waiting parents crazy!

At this point all us adoptive parents in Indiana were on the phones and emailing our congressmen, senators, and the White House asking, begging them to make a way for our kids to come home!

Jan 14-16, 2010:
I felt like my computer was attached to my hip these 3 days! I was trying to figure out if the US government had any precedence to letting orphans come into the country if a major catastrophe happened. After many calls I found out from an immigration lawyer that yes they did. It was called a 'Humanitarian Parole Status'. Our orphanage director was already on it and working on it from Haiti where she was. We parents waited painstakingly by our computers for any news.

Senator Luger's office was amazing and kept us up to date on the happenings in Washington DC. And a contact in Brad Ellsworth's office was trying to move heaven and earth for us families in Evansville! We were told adoptive families all over the US were doing the same and DC was noticing!!! Wooohoooo!!!!!!!!

Sunday Jan 17, 2010:
We got word. All parents that had children at 3 Angels orphanage were being put on red alert you could say. We were to be packed and ready to go at a moments notice to pick up our kids from where ever they flew into. Well a frenzy began as we all realized we didn't have on hand the things we needed for our kids. Can you say late night trip to Walmart? Thank you Jesus our Walmart is open 24 hours!

Monday Jan 18, 2010:
I finished getting the last few things ready, took Todd to work, and headed to my mom's house. My oldest brother and his kids were in town visiting. I figured if I was gonna have to wait at least my kids could visit with their cousins. So we got settled in and I got signed onto her computer. Started checking my emails and facebook, then emails again. Holy moly! An email that said we needed to get to Ft Pierce FL asap! Closest airport was Orlando or Ft Lauderdale.

I decided to take point and called all the Evansville families and told them to head to the airport and we would group up and decide. I kissed my kids goodbye as I ran out the door and picked up Todd from work and got to the airport first. After much debate and talk we had just about decided to book flights on Delta. Cathy (my sister-in-law) and I were on the phone at the same time about to book flights when her husband told her not to do it. He couldn't explain it, he just had a bad feeling. He walked out of the airport. Todd said, "Hang up Kristina!" I asked the lady to hold on a minute and followed my husband and brother-in-law out the door. Todd and I had words and he got in my face and told me Troy had a bad feeling and he didn't feel good about it either, to please hang up and not purchase tickets.

I did as my husband asked. I know, I know that is hard to believe...let's just say I listened when it counted! And boy did it count!

i got on the phone with a friend who had a private plane. yes we could fly there and no they would not charge us. Yes the pilots and plane could stay over night and bring us back the next day if needed. In the meantime Ellsworth's office hand commandeered another private plane to take the rest of the families down at no cost. Only one family flew commercial.

5:30pm we were taking off from Tri-state Aero on a VERY nice private plane heading...not to Orlando or Ft Lauderdale where we would have a 2 hr drive to get to Ft Pierce...but flying INTO the very airport our children had landed at in Ft Pierce! This airport only lets private planes have access! Boy was I glad I had listened to my husband! A big shout out to my best friend Rebekah who was trying to get things in order for all of us when we thought we would be landing in Orlando. Girl you have no idea how much you mean to me, especially when you said we could all sleep on your floors before heading back home. I hate that I didn't get to see you, but grateful we flew into the same airport as Ellie. Had we not, she would have been put into protective custody of the state of Florida.

We landed @7:30 our time, 8:30 their time. We weren't sure where to go except the customs office. Found out it was across from the airstrip where we were. I was not beyond walking across the runway to get to my girl! Thankfully the building we landed at had a gentleman there who drove us around. We arrived at the customs office to see people standing around. All of us adoptive parents had never really met except thru facebook and blogs so we introduced ourselves. We were Papa & Mama Ellie! @9:38 I saw Ellie thru the glass doors. (we weren't allowed to go inside) When she realized who was waiving at her like a mad lady, she grinned real big and waved back. My heart melted and I started crying. To be so close and not able to hold her...argh!

3 other Evansville families got their kids before us. It was awesome every time they brought a child out we would all cheer, cry, give hugs and say prayers! It was definitely a bonding moment. Finally @ 10:30 they brought Ellie out! I didn't even wait for them to hand her to me, I grabbed her and hugged her so tight. She was a bit dazed by all the commotion, but it didn't take her long to be her old self asking for her bag and looking for food in it. (yep I had packed snacks!)

We called the pilot to say we were heading back to fly home. He told us we couldn't, there was fog on the ground in Evansville, no landing tonight. So we looked at each other and thought, what now? We had no game plan other than get to our kids. Turns out friends of the O's director were there to support her and they had a 16 passenger van and said they would give us a ride to the hotel. What? God...you are GOOD! We got to the hotel, our rooms were taken care of by someone back home. WOW! My socks here blessed and long gone by now!

The hotel was VERY nice. Our room had a king size bed so we all three slept in it with lots of room....except Ellie was my second skin ALL night! sigh. Not complaining, she was ours now! As Todd, Troy and Tim headed out to find food for all of us (we hadn't eaten since lunch and it was past midnight), I knelt on the floor and prayed and gave thanks to God for his goodness. For delivering my daughter to me and saving her life!

We realized that today, Jan 18, 2010 was a year to the day that we got Jonas! A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

Tuesday Jan 19, 2010:

We got up and gave Ellie a bath. I didn't attempt a whole head of hair redo, but I did unbraid the top section, wash it and rebraided it. We headed down to breakfast and had a mini reunion of all the parents and kids. Smiles. Smiles is what I remember about that morning. Everyone was just so elated about having their children in their arms, safe. The kids were all laughing and playing with each other! Beautiful sight to behold let me tell you!
We got a ride back to the airport from the same people and we were ready to head home. The pilot informed us we needed to wait because the fog was still there. We sat around for an hour and finally took off.

We were almost home when the pilots informed us that we had to land in Owensboro KY, the fog had not lifted yet. We were in a state of unbelief. We were so close! They told us we would wait it out and hopefully get to fly home. We got on the phone with the big crowd at the airport and told them to all start praying for God to lift the fog so we could come home. They started praying, and the fog started lifting. We were all excited when the pilot said we had the go ahead to head to Evansville! Both planes loaded up and headed for the 10 minute flight home!

The crowd of people waiting for all of us was overwhelming and a wonderful sight to see!!!!!!! We were home! The girls and Jonas came running and our family was together for the first time. What an amazing feeling!

Thank you Gretchen and Three Angels for not giving up and getting our kids home! Thank you to our friends for the plane, to Ellsworth office and Luger's office and all they did, friends and family for all your support and prayers. For those of you who gave to us financially. thank you to the family who offered to purchase our tickets to fly and bring her home. But mostly, THANK YOU JESUS for making all this possible!
Hugs, Kristina
I will post pictures tomorrow!