Day 9 and Home

The day we left Sofia started slowly. We were up and ready with about 3 hours to spare. We decided to take a walk and found that early Saturday morning is almost deserted. We were used to the hustle and bustle of later in the day. 

 We were picked up about 10:30 to go to the airport. Riding with us was a mom from Indiana who was heading home with her new 4yr old daughter.   We learned that we would be flying together until Chicago, so it was nice to know there would be a familiar face around. 

 As the plane was just about to take off, I almost teared up. I suddenly FELT like I was leaving my kids behind.  Even now I'm thinking often about what time it is there and what they might be doing. 

 Our flights were thankfully uneventful. The only possible problem we foresaw was catching our plane in Chicago. We had our shortest layover, had to get through customs, and had to take a train to our terminal. As we arrived, so did another international plane or two. The place was absolutely packed. We had only 30 minutes until our plane was supposed to start boarding. We finally made it through the line, claimed our bags, got in another line, gave more paperwork, checked our bags back in, caught the train, and found our gate. As we approached the counter, we noticed the door next to it was closed, and we feared they had already closed it to any more boarding. Then the guy tells us that our flight is loading 5 gates further away.  Not what was on our tickets printed that morning.  But we also learned that it was leaving later than originally planned. We finally reached the right gate 55 minutes after we originally arrived and just before they opened the door for boarding. Tim graciously let me run to the restroom first.  Trust me.  I was fast, but when I came back they had already called our zone for boarding. So we went ahead and boarded. It was only about an hour's flight or so, but we did stop at the first available bathroom in Nashville's airport.  We went to claim our bags and waited and waited. While we were waiting, they announced the current local time as 10PM.  I told Tim that marked the point at which we had been up for 24 hours. Finally, Tim went to the counter to ask.  Sure enough, our luggage had missed the flight.  We gave all the necessary information to have our things delivered Sunday about 3 or 4 PM.  We then called the hotel where we had parked and let them know we needed a ride. 

 We went straight to get the boys, went home, and made it to bed about 12:30 AM -- just 26 1/2 hrs since I got up!  Yes, we dozed a little on the big flight but not a whole lot. 

 Sunday was busy.  We actually did make it to church on time. After lunch, we thought we should wait for our luggage before returning to Tim's parents house for the rest of the boys' things and to show pictures. Besides, then we could give them the gift we bought them. Again we waited and waited.  Our luggage finally arrived about 7:30. We opened the small one to get out the gifts.  We had bought 6 coffee mugs, and they were all in bubble wrap.  All 6 were broken.  We had taken 4 picture frames to give as gifts and only used 2. So we brought 2 back to return to the store.  One of those was broken -- not just the glass, but the frame itself.  We also had a power converter smashed, a large can of Lysol had three huge dents in its steel can, and the three candles the monk gave us were all broken in multiple places. I don't know what they hit the suitcase with, but it couldn't have been simply dropped. There was even a hole torn in the top cover of the suitcase. This is maybe the second time it has been used. 

 This made us go take a look in the other suitcase.  Here I had packed our dirty clothes bags in a small suitcase then loaded that into the big suitcase and finished packing around it. At first glance you could tell someone had been through it.  No big surprise.  I knew searching was a possibility. The small suitcase was open, etc. Then Tim found them little vinyl zippered case that he keeps has razor in. It was open and empty. We searched everywhere, but it was gone. In our search, I found my glasses out loose.  My hard case for them was gone. Tim had also had filled an old film canister with sand for a friend who collects sand from around the world. It was gone as well.  I haven't finished putting everything away, so I'm not sure if anything else is gone or broken, but it really makes me mad that people do this way.  Puts a black eye on what would have been  a really awesome travel experience. 

 Moving forward from here, we must now get back to finishing our school year (Tim included), get those fingerprints done, complete the I-800, update medicals, apply for the grants that wanted a formal acceptance first, and get the house ready.  Oh, and be prepared for more fundraiser announcements. We came up at least $8500 short on the last push, and we need at least the $13,500 again for this last leg of the journey.