An Untold Story

It's been 1 year and 4 months since this event happened and I'm finally ready to share it...

We went to get him Sept. 2,2009.
To say it was the best day of our lives is an understatement but it almost didn't happen. We left Columbia early that morning and flew to Charlotte. Our flight to Ft. Lauderdale was full of wonder and excitement. We landed and had a few minutes before his plan was to land so we went to eat. We were talking about the adoption and how it all began and I was crying...a young waiter stopped and asked if I was ok. I told him why I was crying and he said, "My dad was Haitian, promise me you will teach him the story of his country." I cried more!!!

We went to the door where the immigrants are to come through and we waited and waited and waited. I finally put the video camera down and Michael and I decided he should go over to the other building to ask if the flight was delayed. He went and they told him neither Clifford or Barbara were on the plane they had tickets for!!! I called two or three friends and left voice mails for them to pray. I was sick. I cried and wanted to scream.

We finally found out that she hadn't gotten his VISA the day before and when she tried to get it before the flight the machine was broken. We had return tickets for the 5 of us for around 7pm. What were we going to do??? We went to the ticket booth and I explained our situation and they were so nice. They would change our tickets for any day and any time without a charge. We finally tracked Barbara down and they were in Miami, had made it through customs in enough time to make it on a tram from Miami Airport to Ft. Lauderdale and we would still be able to catch the flight we were scheduled for. We waited and waited. We went to the area where we were to meet Barbara and again I sat with video camera poised for the moment he stepped off the tram. Our daughter tripped and fell on the concrete. Her knee was bleeding and I had nothing to clean the blood up with. I had nothing to help her and I was so frustrated that we couldn't leave the spot where we were for fear of missing his tram. Time kept passing and trams would go around and around and they never stopped to let them off.

Finally a tram driver said, I let a white lady and a little black kid off back there!!! We grabbed everything and stuffed our drinks in our bags and ran to the designated area.



We ran dragging our stuff with our daughter crying over her knee hurting and when we got to the tram stop they weren't there!!! Our flight time was only 30 minutes away and we had no son to take home. We collapsed on the floor of the airport in the doorway so we were sure that we would not miss them. FINALLY, Barbara walked through the door with him and starts handing me paperwork and souvenirs for the girls and she needed for us to pose for a picture for her records....
time was ticking away and we had him but I thought that he was scared of us. I felt so sick inside. I had a toy that he had played with at the orphanage and I just knew he would remember it...he didn't. He just stood in front of us while we cried and fumbled and hugged him...They called for our flight and we took off. The filefolders of adoption paperwork were going everywhere in my arms. Michael carried Clifford to security. As we stood waiting for the guy to read Clifford's passport I looked at the man behind me and said..."We just adopted him from Haiti" He smiled and said that his best friends had an adoptive child also and it was great!" It felt like an eternity to go through the security process.

They flagged my bag b/c I had a DRINK IN IT!!! I felt so stupid and like a criminal when they told me that they had to take my drink. I tried to explain why I had it and that I forgot about it and I just started crying...finally they let us go and we booked it to the gate. We made it just as the final call was being made...We got situated on the plane and our seats were divided. My youngest daughter and I sat on the right side of the plane and across the isle were Michael, Leanna and Clifford. We gave him his Dapper Dan doll to play with and he hurled it behind him and hit the man sitting in the row behind them. Michael kept speaking to Clifford in Creole and Leanna took him under her wing like a little momma and loved him from the first moments...


When we landed in the Charlotte airport we were all so tired and emotionally spent but we were so overjoyed at the same time. We were hungry so we made it to the gate and there was a Burger King right beside it. I took Clifford to the bathroom and changed him out of his old clothes and shoes and I threw them in the trash. They made him look like such an orphan.

He was no longer an orphan and he had NEW clothes on!!! We took him to the Burger King and he got away from me, stood by a stranger's table and stared at his hamburger. When I realized that I didn't know where he was and I saw him looking at this man, I ran over and apologized and explained that he had never seen a hamburger before.

I thrust his drink at him and he just held the straw in his mouth.I must have looked like an idiot trying to show him how to suck the drink up through the straw!!! We got settled in at the gate and everyone ate and praised God for making it all happen!!! On the trip from Charlotte to Columbia I played peek a boo with him. He loved to look at the pictures in the magazines. We finally touched down in the Palmetto State...so relieved to be home with one journey coming to a close and a whole new one awaiting us just ahead!!!

January 2011