Traveling Home!

Sorry for the lack of pictures - we went at a pace that didn’t allow pictures! Andy met the consulate at 7:00 am this morning. As he expressed our gratitude, she got tears in her eyes. We prayed that God would prepare people along the way that were sympathetic to us, and He certainly used the US consulate as a blessing.

We arrived at the airport in Bucharest in plenty of time. We were told we had to buy a different ticket for Hope, because hers was never changed from Friday. About 45 minutes later, we got the ticket and headed to customs and security. Hope enjoyed running through the airport and climbing on chairs during our long wait on her ticket - she is very much a two year old with lots of energy. We were so glad to see this. She did great for the three hour flight to London. She played the entire trip.

When we got to London, it took us awhile to get through customs. They wanted to see paper work on Hope, etc. The airport was very difficult to navigate, so we went through a line and completed paperwork that wasn’t necessary. We got to our gate just in time to grab some snacks for the very long trip home.

Hope did really well on the flight. We gave her one dose of Benadryl. She slept a couple of hours and then played and ate the rest of the eight hours. God is sooo good. When we landed in Atlanta, Hope became a US citizen. We had a brief meeting with immigration at the airport to give them documents from the US Embassy in Romania. We thought we were home free. Then we had to have our bags checked (not carry on bags) for agricultural reasons since we were coming in from another country. THEN we had to go through security one more time. To fully appreciate all of this, to our bodies, it was between 1 and 2 am Thursday morning! Through this security, they made Hope take her shoes off - not good! This was the most she cried all day. Of course, she stopped as soon as they were back on. Finally, we retrieved our bags, headed to the van, and loaded up. Hope had her first ride in a car seat. She really protested but fell asleep very quickly.

We arrived home to a big welcome home sign with balloons at the front door (thanks to those sweet Powells) and the Colee family and best of all, Dow! Words can not express how much we love all of you and thank you for your support and prayers. I hope to update tomorrow with some pics of Hope in her new home.

Please pray for Andy, he leaves for N.O. at 5 am Thursday morning!