Going home, left at home

Today would have been Becky’s birthday. A sad thought for us, not for her.

Our Honduran children are home safe. They arrived at their house a little after 1 am. A very long day for them. We were able to spend an extra hour with Nate, Cori, and the kids at the airport as Nate moved through the check-in process. Now days, all airlines have kiosks set up for passengers to use to get bag tags and boarding passes. However, those are not always reliable. Such proved the case yesterday as Nate tried to get through the process at one of those kiosks. Eventually, with the help of two attendants, the bag tags were issued, and the boarding passes printed. As that unfolded, the rest of us visited and hugged multiple goodbyes.

With those parts of the process completed, we went to send the bags through the scales and belts to have them loaded on the plane. Another semi-automated process requiring the boarding passes each bag was assigned to to be scanned. That too proved more than the machines could handle without help and we were finally allowed to talk to an actual person.

Because the final destination of the travelers was Honduras, COVID tests were required to be verified and pre-entry paperwork double-checked. Those steps require an actual person. The entire process took almost and hour. Since we parked in the 1-hour parking area, I was anxious to meet that timeframe. We did so with four minutes to spare. It was a prolonged, sad goodbye for all of us. Especially for Grammy since she had to do all the morning feeding on her own today for the first time in many days.

Getting through security was challenging since Blake always fails the scan because of his insulin pump attachment. It turns out that the TSA personnel are not allowed to pat down a minor, so they searched Nate instead. Go figure. Nevertheless, they all made it through eventually and had a story to tell to boot.   Everyone was excited about getting Chick-Fil-A one last time but when they got to the restaurant, it was closed. The hours for that Chick-Fil- A were 5 am – 4 pm. They had gotten through security at about 5:30 pm. Anyway, they ate at a Texas staple, Whataburger instead. It was not the same but was a good substitute in a pinch.

Our house is quiet, very quiet. One of the sad constancies of life once the goodbyes are said. That sense of loss is bearable because of the time we had together, and the near certainty that we will see each other again soon. This particular visit was a very good one. There was a good spirit in the house throughout the time we were together. We did not do anything special but rather chose to simply enjoy the time we had been given, whether shopping, milling around at Cabela’s, tending to the farm, and sharing our church family with our biological family. It was fun just to be together. The boys got the idea to split wood for a bonfire we were going to have Friday evening and they continued in that activity until they broke the handle on my axe Tuesday morning.

When I took time to look at the pile of split firewood they left for me and Mama, I was both impressed and thankful. With electric rates going up so steeply right now, we will be using the fireplace more this winter than any year past. I still need to take down two or three trees on the property as well as cut out about fifty small trees near the stock tank, so we will have more firewood than we need for the colder months. One of the benefits of life on our little farm. So many people around us own the same amount acreage – 10 acres – but do not have a single tree on their properties. We really are blessed to be living where we are! Just as blessed as Nate, Cori, and the kids are to be where they do in Honduras.

Several years ago, I built a stand for a small mailbox Savanna had gotten in doll purchases. She had used that in her daily play since I added the stand for the mailbox, so I asked Cori if that was still the case. Her response was that every so often Savanna will tell her that there is something in that mailbox for her which Cori will happily retrieve and enthusiastically read. Of course, all those notes are from Savanna to her mommy, providing a fun activity for the two of them. With that in mind, Mama and I bought five cards to be randomly placed in that mailbox for Savanna to find. Cori put the first in the mailbox this morning. In the first card, we simply wrote a note. In all the subsequent cards I placed money – increasing the amount from a single dollar in the next to four dollars in the last. Cori sent a video of Savanna opening the fist card this morning. Savanna was excited to get her own mail from Grammy and Papi. I can only imagine what her expression will be when she starts getting the next few cards with the money enclosed. Cori told us that Savanna told her “I will keep this forever.” That was just the first.

This should be fun!