One Year Ago ...Today (w/video)

On a Monday night like tonight, one year ago today, Pedro and I boarded a plane and flew to meet our Haitian sons in Florida. Even today, the emotions of that trip overwhelm me. Never has there been for us a crazier and more nerve-wracking yet miraculous 24 hours than what we experienced with Ian and Alec's homecoming.

Literally, from the moment we walked out our door in Iquique, Chile, South America on Monday night to the moment our sons landed in Ft. Pierce, Florida, North America on Tuesday night we were speeding across air and time and space to arrive just in the nick of time to gather them into our arms.

I'll never forget taking urgent calls with driving directions on the cell phone borrowed from my sister-in-law just minutes earlier, while we pushed our rented vehicle to the speed limit (and beyond) and watched mile markers pass by, praying that we would not miss Ian and Alec's arrival after a 6-hour plane delay in Peru made us late and fluctuating flight plans made them late ... and there we were on unfamiliar roads in unfamiliar towns and we stopped first at the wrong airport and "no, it's just another ways down there," and hurrying, hurrying into the doors and the small crowd of waiting parents who were holding their breath just like us, and finally! oh finally, the officer let us in and there they really, truly were ...

I think of it now and it's like a dream. Seeing our adoption coordinator, being handed a feverish and tired Ian (who just days later would be in the ER with rotovirus) and trying to win over a wild Alec who just wanted to run free after his hours cooped up on a small airplane with half a dozen others.

I wish I had more video of that moment, but only two small clips record the memory:

Thankfully, these are memories that will forever be recorded on my heart ... of the day God brought us and our sons fleeing from distant corners of the world and joined us together in a tiny airport in Ft. Pierce. There was so much more in store - joys and challenges, transitions and triumphs - but that night was the culmination and fulfillment of so many hopes and dreams, long delayed, yet finally come true by the grace of God.

And to think it was one year ago ... today.