Our adoption journey started in 2020 with a desire to expand our family through adoption. It has been a long, perilous, and emotionally draining road. Our journey started with a desire to adopt from Ukraine and included an initial referral trip to Zaproizhzhia, Mariupol, and Berdyans'k in eastern Ukraine, January 2022. Later in 2022, after it became clear that the war in Ukraine wasn't going to end quickly, we made the difficult decision to pivot away from Ukraine and pursue an adoption from India (thanks Chloe!). We have accepted a referral for a little girl from the southern part of India and are working hard to bring her home as quickly as possible.
So, God just granted us a miracle, actually two. I booked our flight earlier this week and selected our seats in an exit row that has almost unlimited leg room (if you're curious you can Google United 787-9 row 42). I didn't think anything of it until we were boarding and Charissa's boarding pass dinged on check-in to let the gate attendant know to have her confirm that she was sitting an exit row, but mine didn't. Glancing down at my boarding pass I saw seat 43a. Looking at Charissa's confirmed the worst, we were assigned (reassigned?) seats in separate rows. What happened, we wondered.
I walked the rest of the way down the ramp and talked to the first attendant we came to at the door and explained the situation. She was very sympathetic and told us to go to the seats, let the attendant there know as well and she would be down to see what happened.
We made our way to our seats, it took a bit of time, but another attendant did come by and I explained the situation, even showed them the reservation confirmation email. Everyone was very sympathetic, but there was nothing they could do, all seats are full, there aren't two seats together anywhere.
The original attendant I informed still wasn't around.
The attendants that were helping apologized and said there was nothing they could do but ask if someone would maybe be willing to move. A kindly older lady did volunteer to move so Charissa and I could sit together. Miracle 1.
We settled into our seats, thanking the flight attendants and the lady that moved for us. It had taken so much time that everyone else was in their seats already and the plane was ready to begin taxing for take off.
The original flight attendant then came around and asked if we got it straightened out. We explained to her what happened and she was grateful and also said thank you to the person who moved for us.
I mentioned to the attendant, her name is Esha, that we are traveling to India to adopt. She immediately said that news was a blessing to her as her sister, "best sister in the whole world," was adopted (her dad found her in a dumpster)! This got us to talking more and more, all the while the plane is taxing, ultimately took off, and reached cruising altitude.
Esha is a believer, she encouraged us, told us about India, hugged Charissa, held our hands, and knelt right in the "virtually unlimited leg room" space and prayed with us! The prep for this trip has been extremely emotional, the last time we were in this situation was January of 2022 and we were flying to Ukraine. We needed to talk to Esha, God knew we needed her in that moment while we took off, climbed out, and leveled off. We would have never met her had my seat not been changed. Our hearts are full and encouraged.
Miracle 2
We don't know what the rest of this trip will bring, but we know we can trust in the One who turns a changed seat assignment into an opportunity to meet and be encouraged by a another member of God's family.
Esha and Charissa will exchange emails, she wants to come meet us, and wanted to know when we are flying back so she can ensure she works that flight to see us again and meet Alyssia! So sorry all our family back in Michigan, I think the first "family member" to meet Alyssia will be Esha!
Flight update, just over 12 hours till we land in Delhi. The pilot did say that we will likely make good time to Delhi, we just have a strong Jetstream and clear weather across Europe.
Thank you all for praying! I'll update when we arrive in Delhi, or sooner if there are any more stories of God's goodness to us.
After a busy night of packing and a short sleep, we got underway with the first leg of the journey to bring Alyssia home. We left on time, had an uneventful flight from GR to NJ, and the walk between gates took about 10 minutes. We are now waiting about 45 minutes to board for the long flight to Delhi. Here we go!
We are in the last minute prep and pack. There is a flurry of activity making sure all the paperwork is ready, and there is a lot of paperwork. Our flights are confirmed, our hotels booked, transportation arranged (including our pickup tomorrow morning at 430a, thank you Kurt!). Once we finish packing we will be ready to go! Thank you all for praying and supporting us on this journey, we are excited, anxious, and nervous to go; but we are ready. Please be praying for our existing kids, Nicolas and Elaina. They are troupers, but its hard for them to have us gone.
The setback: over the weekend we found out that the regional passport office in our daughter's district isn't following CARA guidelines allowing adoptive parents to remotely request the adoptive child's Indian passport via the local care taker and a power of attorney. This means we have to go to the passport office in the orphanage region and request the passport ourselves. At best this adds a few days to our trip, worst a week. Unfortunately that variability adds another layer of uncertainty requiring more open ended hotel and flight scheduling.
The way forward: we have booked flights from our home city to the orphanage region's airport and the total flight time is right around 24 hours. We are schedule to leave this Friday, Feb. 16 at 630 in the morning. The return flight from Delhi home has also been booked (for 3!). The flight from the orphanage region to Delhi has not been scheduled yet; we will do that once we have the passport. We also have somewhat refundable hotels in region and in Delhi. Please be praying that we can stick to the schedule laid out by our agency and avoid paying fees to change hotels and flights.
We got the excellent news today that our daughter has a birth certificate! It was overwhelming and amazing to view a scan of the certificate and see our names listed as her parents! There was a small delay in getting her physical birth certificate which had us concerned because her passport appointment is tomorrow and the birth cert. is needed for that appointment. In this case, like in so many ways, big and small, God moved, we received her birth certificate in time and the passport appointment does not need to be rescheduled from tomorrow! If all goes well, we could be flying in about two weeks.
