We are here! IN ATLANTA!!!!!!!!

Yesterday was an exercise in frustration for me. We were getting ready to leave for the airport and everything was fine as far as I knew. Then our friend from the airport called and told us that the sooner we got there the more chances we'd have to make a flight out of our hometown airport. So, we rushed around, made a mad dash for the airport, stopping by to pick up the camera my parents mailed to us so that we can video this great event, said goodbye to the boys and my mom, made it through security (after I found the nail polish I had thrown in my carry-on without a baggie), got checked in at the gate........ and waited........ and waited....... and waited..... We missed getting on the first flight because so many other higher priority people got on ahead of us, no room at all for standbys on the next flight, and the third and last flight was delayed by almost 3 hours. All of that obviously means that we missed our connection to India. Byron spent some time on the phone and the computer with Adrienne trying to get everything switched around and here's where we stand today: We fly to Mumbai, get a domestic flight to Delhi the next morning, take our luggage with us to the embassy, do the embassy thing, take our luggage back to the airport, and fly to Kolkata. We'll see how that goes. :)

I was pretty upset yesterday. I thought that we had been trying to honor God with this whole adoption, not to mention the trip, tried to follow His leading, accepted help where we thought He had provided it, etc. Then to realize that we had missed our flight to India just really rocked my world. I lost it a little bit. I couldn't understand how we had gotten it wrong. The guy at the gate didn't really help any. He said that if we had been there for the 6am or 7am flights, we would have been just fine. I didn't really need to hear that, you know? It wasn't our fault that we didn't know to show up that early. Anyway, as we were sitting there waiting, a lady walked in by herself and sat down. She was very elegant looking and looked like she was pretty wealthy. She was just a very striking woman in appearance. When we were getting ready to get confirmed for the last flight, she went up to the gate counter, but I couldn't hear what was happening. Byron went up to make sure our name was on the list, and overheard that she couldn't speak English. He didn't know if she spoke Spanish, but he came back to me and told me I might want to go up listen to see if I could help. Sure enough, she did speak Spanish and was a terrified as a little puppy at being left there by herself and didn't understand all of the airline changes and flight delays that were going on. I stepped in and interpreted for the Delta guy and explained everything to her. As it turned out, she got a voucher for a free hotel stay because the plane delay was related to a mechanical problem but she didn't want to use it because she was too scared to leave the airport. She planned on sitting at the airport all night long! By herself! Not being able to speak to many people at all! We ended up staying at the same hotel so that she would go with us and could get a decent night's sleep. She should be on her way to El Paso by now. (She thought she could make the return trip OK.) She bought my supper last night and the airline gave us meal vouchers for my help. I say all of that to say this: Maybe SHE was the reason our flight problems happened. If so, then to God be the glory for keeping us there so I could help out.

Time to check out and head to the airport and India finally, hopefully! More later!

William and David, I MISS YOU! I kept thinking about what you would have thought and said about things that we saw yesterday. Be extra good for Grandma and know that WE LOVE YOU VERY MUCH! (Thanks, again, Grandma!)