Friday, May 28th - Home at least - (or so we thought! It just wouldn't feel right if there weren't some bumps along the way with this journey).

While waiting to board our flight out of Almaty, we were blessed to have met Lisa and her 5yo daughter also just adopted from Kazakhstan, who were traveling home on the same flights with us from Almaty to Frankfurt and on to D.C. I'll give credit to our Great Provider for providing these two kids, who are heading off to strange new places, lots of hours together to talk and laugh and play. They were so cute together. Victoria and her mom, Lisa, sat in the seats directly in front of us! It thrilled me to hear my little guy talk and joke around with his new friend. We haven't a clue what they were talking about, but they were having a ball. They even sat together in the same seat for a while (with Scott's arm around her shoulder - what a dude!) Scott has so much more personality than John and I were able to see during our 3 weeks with him at the baby house. He is quite a match for his equally, full of personality sister, Cooper.

We had from 11 something a.m. until 5 p.m. to pass the time. It was more enjoyable when Scott and Victoria could play together in the airport terminal, but at 3 pm we parted ways and went to be near our boarding gate. Just before 5pm they allowed half the plane to board the plane for Greenville, SC while telling the other half that they needed to go to customer service to rebook for a new flight - this one was cancelled due to bad weather on route to SC. Strangely no one told our flight crew this news for another 10-15 minutes. We returned to the terminal (Scott being just as patient as ever) and headed to the service counter which was now at least 10o people long. All flights to the southeast area had been cancelled and all these people were also looking for another way to get home. After 27 hours of traveling with a 5 yo (even though he was an absolute angel) I couldn't stand in line the hours it would take in that line. So I went to the 3 people line at the counter where they take your tickets to board people and I cried (and I prayed) and I called John who could tell that my brain was no longer synapsing upstairs at all. 30 minutes later, the very kind lady with United had booked me and Scott for one ticket "confirmed" and one "standby" at noon on the following day (Saturday) to Columbia, SC and 2 "confirmed" tickets at 5pm. We'll take it. John called and got us a room at the Marriott and off Scott and I went to find a shuttle. The Washington Airport is huge, I might add. We walked and walked, still no complaining from my wonderful little boy. He is a great traveling companion.

The hotel was really nice and the beds are much softer in the U.S. than in Kazakhstan. I'm learning that Scott has some interesting likes in his eating. He chose tomato juice to drink at the snack shop after having had it on the airplane and a sesame seed bagel earlier for breakfast- weird, huh? I felt badly that I'd been building up getting to go home all day long and he might think that the Marriott was it. Scott seemed to understand me when I said, "Desaftra, we fly (while holding my arms out like an airplane) and marsh to our doma"/tomorrow we fly and go to our home. He was tickled to get another bubble bath (and equally thrilled to turn on the shower which filled up much of the bathroom floor!) Easy to bed once again, so grateful for how incredibly well he is doing. He slept great and I got 8 needed hours of sleep.