(Suzanne) Friday March 28 at 7:00 am, Dave dropped me off at the airport on his way to work. I flew to Washington D.C. for Yulia’s arrival at 5pm. I arrived in D.C. at 1pm, so I went to the hotel and waited. I received a call from our coordinator, Lana, who told me the flight had been delayed until 7:30 pm. This sent my mind into spin mode…”is this REALLY going to happen?” Maybe the escort, Elina, wouldn’t be able to get to the correct gate in Frankfurt, after all, she doesn’t speak English. Maybe she would have the wrong baby even if she DID arrive. How was she going to go to the bathroom traveling alone with a baby? Would she hand Yulia to a stranger who would run off with her because she is so cute? I just KNEW something was going to go wrong. I ordered room service for dinner and watched TV. Strangely, the HBO movie was Stuart Little, about a mouse adopted by a human family. I nervously paced the hotel room until around 6pm when I caught the shuttle back to the airport. A very kind Ethiopian valet spoke with me while I was waiting on the airport shuttle. He noticed my anxiety and asked me if I was OK. I told him my story. He told me he had adopted his Ethiopian niece several years ago and recalled how nervous he was waiting on her to arrive at the Dulles airport, just like me.
I arrived at the airport at 6:20 and started pacing up and down the corridors.
I met our coordinator Lana around 7:30 pm. The flight had not arrived, so we waited. Meanwhile, Nikolai or Dave called me every 10 minutes asking “Is she there yet?” Around 9pm we saw a pretty young blonde carrying a baby and looking around like she was lost. That’s her! I yelled, calling attention to the gathering crowd. Lana and I rushed to her. I expected Yulia not to recognize me or have any clue who I was, after all, our time with her in Kazakhstan was limited due to her hospitalization. It also had been 5 weeks since we last saw her. I actually expected Yulia to be attached to Elina and cry when she was handed over to me. Elina had cared for Yulia for a whole week while completing paperwork in Almaty. This would be the first time Yulia had a consistent caregiver, so it would be understandable if she didn’t want to leave Elina’s arms. I approached Yulia slowly and spoke to her softly, although it was difficult not to squeal in delight and grab her. Yulia looked right into my eyes and smiled, as if to say “Hi Mommy!”.
