Haiti Trip #1 — Traveling to Haiti
I am interrupting our regular schedule to share my journal entries from my first trip to Haiti in February 2005. What follows over the next few days is the unedited text from my journal entries–aside from names.
At the beginning of February, my husband and I started thinking it might be a good idea to look into sending me to Haiti. I had been praying from the beginning of our adoption that Lucas would either be home before his birthday or that I would be able to spend it with him in Haiti. Though the cost of the trip would be a stretch financially, we felt good about me going the week of Lucas’ birthday if I could find someone to travel with and share expenses.
The first two people I attempted to travel with had things come up in their adoptions that prevented their travel during the dates I wanted to be in Haiti. I decided to just give up on the idea but my husband encouraged me to keep looking for possibilities. Very late Friday night (Feb. 11th), I saw a posting on the e-mail group for our orphanage. One of the moms was looking for someone to travel with her as she went to pick up her son. I sent her an e-mail suggesting that I might be able to do so.
My husband and I discussed it and prayed more about the decision. By Saturday afternoon (Feb. 12th), it was decided that I would be going and things started falling into place. Because it was still up in the air whether my traveling companion would in fact be leaving on the dates I wished to travel, we kept the news to “need to know basis” until we knew for sure I would be going. Unfortunately, that wasn’t until Monday morning (Feb. 14th) so it was a big surprise to most of you.
At 7:30 p.m. on Monday, February 14, 2005, my flight took off for Seattle where I would meet my traveling companion, Monica*, and my connecting flight to Miami Florida. We took a direct flight so it was a six-hour flight. I wasn’t able to sleep nor get comfortable because the man sitting next to me took up all of his space and nearly half of mine. It wasn’t because he was that large. He just spread himself out and go comfortable while being completely obnoxious whenever he was awake. I was so glad when we finally landed in Miami and very thankful that we were 30 minutes early!
We checked in and then ate breakfast. Shortly before 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, February 15, 2005, we boarded the plane that would fly us to Haiti. The plane experienced some sort of malfunction so we waited on the ground for an hour while the mechanic repaired the control panel. We finally began to taxi toward the runway around 11:20 a.m. I tried to sleep, but I still found it impossible. We finally landed in Port-au-Prince, Haiti around 1 p.m.
While we were in the air, the flight attendants handed out forms for going through customs. When we entered the airport, we stood in line waiting for our turn to present form and passports to the customs agent. My heart was thumping for fear I might have filled something out wrong be detain or something. Yep, I watch WAY too much TV! My turn arrived and took all of 2-3 minutes. At last my passport received its very first stamp! Then we were off to retrieve our bags and find our driver, Daniel*.
* pseudonym
Copyright © 2007 Becky Wilson. All Rights Reserved.
Haiti Adoption, traveling to Haiti, inter-country adoption, international adoption, trans-cultural adoption, trans-racial adoption, older child adoption
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