Julia is finally here. Luggage is lost SNAFU!

"I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day & I believe in miracles" -Audrey Hepburn

This past weekend has been a long one for me and for one of my charges. Saturday was the day that Cindy arrived from France and Julia was coming from Germany. Cindy’s flight was to arrive in Jackson at 7:55 and Julia was scheduled to arrive in Tupelo at 9:05. As the Community Representative for AYUSA I try to be at the arrival of all the students I have placed. That was not going to be the case. Brother Scott and Denise and their brood headed down to Jackson to get Cindy. I would be picking up Julia because her host family was still on their way back from a week of competing in the Little Britches Rodeo in Colorado.

So nothing could go wrong could it? We took Anna shopping for school clothes and then to see the Harry Potter movie. After the movie we were going to the airport to wait. The second I walked out of the theater, my phone started vibrating and messages started hitting. All of them saying “urgent” and “call me”. Then the call came from California and the AYUSA offices. Julia’s flight leaving Frankfurt Germany was delayed and that made her late getting into Washington, D.C. That late flight meant she missed flight to Atlanta and would not be coming into Tupelo. But no one seemed to know where she actually was. She had not called anyone and by now everyone was going into full blown panic mode.

I called her host family to update them and told them to stay put until I found something out. After a lot of calling and being put on hold and first being told they could not give us information, finally someone found the child and I talked to her. I can’t tell you the relief that washed over me on hearing her voice. I told her that I was going to have her flight changed because the airline was telling me that it might be THREE days before she could get to Atlanta. I started seeing red after hearing that! I had her flight changed so she would arrive in Memphis on Sunday morning and I promised her I would be standing at the gate when she disembarked from that plane.

Sunday morning arrived and we all loaded into the car and headed to Memphis on 78. Jessica and Jeff and the boys were also going north on I55. We arrived first and I started getting a little panicky when I couldn’t get the guy at the ticket counter to tell me if she was on the flight. For security reasons he could tell me the flight was on time but he could not tell me about the passenger. I showed my papers, my id, I begged but to no avail. By this time I was starting to get angry. That emotion didn’t move him either. I noticed the homeland security people were starting to close in on me so I decided I had better hush or be carted off never to be seen from again. But I knew I could take that little weasel guy out if I had to! I was pacing like a caged tiger for a while and then I went and stood where I could see down the corridor waiting for her plane to land and not knowing if she was on it. One of the security guards proceeded to strike up a not so subtle conversation with me. So I told him the whole story and he told me to go back to the ticket counter and tell them that I wanted a gate pass. So I did.

I handed my purse to Ariel and taking my camera and phone and id card and the paper with Julia’s flight information on it with me I went back to the ticket counter. This time I got a different clerk and after checking my id against the list of ‘known trouble makers and banned people” he told me that she was on the flight and then signed my pass and I went through all the check points and got to the gate about 3 minutes before her plane arrived. I saw Mr. ‘I can’t tell you anything about the passenger” while I was waiting at the gate. I just waved my pass at him.

The plane finally landed and I watched through the window and she was the last one off. I got around to the gate just in time for her to see me. We were both so relieved to see each other. I texted my daughter to tell her that I had Julia and we walked to go and meet her new host family. She was so exhausted from being up all night. Her new family immediately surrounded her and I took photos that were sent by internet to her father who was anxiously waiting in Germany for word that she had arrived. She might have been tired but her smile was beaming with happiness when she met her Host family for the first time!

Now as she gets rested and acquainted with her new family, I am still trying to track down her luggage. We recovered one bag that arrived in Tupelo but the other one is still MIA and that is just not acceptable to me. But I still believe in miracles and tomorrow is another day. And that bag had better miraculously appear!