The beginning of a (hopefully) miraculous summer.

It seems that just getting all the kids here is the first miracle, and I am not talking about the raising of funds, finding host families, et al, but just the actual traveling. Due to plane difficulties the kids and their escorts where not able to leave Bogata when originally planed. Well, I guess they left when planned, but then the plane had to turn around and land back in Bogata. From that point on it seemed like we could only get pieces of information about the travel plans, usually the newest news being quite different than the last piece of news. Eventually the airline ended up putting up the kids and the escorts in a hotel in Bogata Saturday night and then they flew out early Sunday morning. Once they made it to Atlanta, the airline had difficulty getting them all to Austin, it was impossible to get every one on one flight, and trying to determine who would fly with whom, and what flights had room was a logistical nightmare. Luckily the Atlanta Kidsave Coordinator went above and beyond the call of duty and spent her day at the airport helping to coordinate the travel plans. Eventually the first group of kids and one of the escorts where able to catch a flight that landed in Austin at 8:15 PM, the rest of the group and the other escort arrived at 1:00 AM! The good news is everyone is here safe and sound.


Kevin arrived on the 8:15PM flight. He looked tired, and I think he was a little emotional at meeting us. After hugging us and John Paul he seemed to rejuvinate a little and was full of questons about us, our car, our home, our dog, etc. He remarked when we were leaving the airport that Austin looked like a "rain forest" because of all the trees. We got home and got him and John Paul to go to sleep probably around 11:00 Pm and hoped to get a good nights sleep. As Lydia already posted, Kevin is used to waking up early and getting some exercise, he didn't let all the travel alter his routine, and was up a ready to go at 6:00 AM.

I'll post more later, but wanted to end with a quick story. Kevin and John have been getting along great. There have been some conflicts over toys, who gets to slide down the slide (or climb up the slide) first, etc, but nothing major or different that when any kids play together. One little conflict was the desire for both of them to hold the leash to walk our dog, Baxter, this afternoon. Luckily I was able to find another leash, attach that to Baxter's collar as well and both John and Kevin where able to walk Baxter at the same time, each with his own leash! They ended up having a lot of fun and both finished the walk laughing.

Mark