The month we received Tom's referral back in 2009, an online adoption friend traveled with her husband and their photographer friend to India, where they met their daughter. At the beginning of the trip, their friend took at picture of them walking underneath the India flags in the international terminal at O'Hare. On their way home, there was another picture taken, only this time, they were walking the opposite direction and had their daughter with them.
As soon as I knew that we were flying through O'Hare, I knew that I wanted to duplicate those pictures.
In the end, it didn't quite work out, as we ended up flying home separately (see Episode LXXXIV or so), but I'm still glad that I got the pictures on the front end. Incidentally, we were in this same terminal on April 8, the day that we learned that we had gotten written guardianship, but also the day that we had canceled Hoffbeast's ticket to fly straight to India from Turkey. On that day, his flight to Chicago had been canceled due to weather, so we had to drive him there ourselves. We had said goodbye to Daddy right underneath the India flags, and little did we know that it would be just 5 short weeks later that we would be back again, ready to fly to our son...those weeks seemed really long, though. Here's Daddy with his 3 kiddos in April....to look at this picture now, it feels so obvious that we were missing an important little person!
It was at O'Hare that I found the much-loved, well-traveled, went-with-us-everywhere-on-the-trip-and-entertained-every-child-with-which-it-came-in-contact book, Where's Waldo? Rex L-O-V-E-S that book, and even now, when Tom sees it, a big smile crosses his face. It was the perfect find; I am quite proud of myself for that one. It was one of those things where I thought, "Should I buy that? It could be useful." In the end, I can't imagine Rex's trip without it. Really funny to think back to the places where that book went. The favorite memory popping to my head now? When we were in Agra, visiting the Taj Mahal, our guide took us to a beautiful jewelry shop where they were high-pressure salesing us. The merchandise was amazing, but there was just no financial way, so we spent the whole time trying to convince them why we Americans couldn't afford to buy their wares. I glance behind me in the middle of all this, and there is Rex, sitting in the middle of the store with one of the employees, showing him the Where's Waldo? book, with the employee pointing and laughing at the book. Where's Waldo? bridges any language barrier! Total comic relief...hilarious!
While at O'Hare, I got this message from my dear friend, Andrea...."Hello! I at least wanted to be able to leave you a message. I'm assuming since it did not go straight to voicemail that you are still in country...we just wanted to call and say 'whooooooohoooooooo!'...going to India to get your son, going to India to get your son, going to India to get your son, we are so excited!...N and I just wanted to say that we are praying for you, praying for a safe trip, praying for Tom and just that it would be an awesome reunion of Mom and Dad to their long lost son, although he's not been lost; he's just not been with you, and you've not met him before, so it's not really a reunion, but he's yours, so, you know. Yeah, just really, really stoked for you. Can't wait to meet him. So, I pray that your time is just...so good and is really fun getting to know him and seeing his birthplace.....So, we'll definitely try to check the blog and check for updates. Love you, friend!" Then she proceeds to try to get N to say his famous "Bye!" Can you tell that she was excited??!
It's how we felt, too! I smiled from ear to ear when I heard the message because I knew that it represented so many other people who were praying and were also excited for and with us. Many had followed our process for the two years before, and people were ready for us to go and get him....and so were we!
Back to May, once we got through security, we walked to our gate and had plenty of time for a snack and a bathroom break. I opted for a McDonald's Coke knowing, of course, that it would be my last one for awhile. Hoffbeast and Rex went for Starbucks, lemon-poppyseed cake and a cranberry scone...yum!
The plane we took to England looked something like this...
And, interestingly enough, this seemed like an important picture to take. It would be awhile before we saw public bathrooms that were this nice again. Mind you, the Delhi airport is nice, don't get me wrong, but the O'Hare bathrooms were super clean and germ-free....we certainly never saw self-rotating toilet seat covers while in India!
It's how we felt, too! I smiled from ear to ear when I heard the message because I knew that it represented so many other people who were praying and were also excited for and with us. Many had followed our process for the two years before, and people were ready for us to go and get him....and so were we!
1 comment:
When I saw the pictures of the airport in this post I couldn't help but think that they were shots out of Home Alone 2.
Sure enough, the shots of the family running through the airport were filmed at O'Hare.
Weird how the memory works, haha.
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