Today is the day we go home and see our Stephen. No more showing people pictures of our cute little one we left behind. (This was Daniel's job.) We awoke at around 5am – 2am Spokane time, with Kumar, our taxi driver, waiting for us. Remember Kumar??? He was the taxi driver who drove off with our back pack in his van and returned it intact and safely. We made it to Dulles in plenty of time and began the journey to airport security…the lines were very long. By the time our turn came, we were saddened that they confiscated Campbell’s well thought out purchase of a Smithsonian Castle snow globe. They told us that we could go back to the front gate and have it checked in our baggage…we already sent our bags off an hour previously..there was not time. Poor Campbell, they thought he might try to explode the plane with his snow globe I guess. We grabbed breakfast in the airport and boarded the plane for our journey home – excited to see Stephen. Our flight was uneventful except that there was no place for our plane to dock, so we sat on the tarmac for a long time, we were concerned that we would miss our connecting flight. Thankfully, the connecting flight arriving was delayed, so we were fine. At the airport in SLC we grabbed lunch for the airplane. We also saw Tom Timperman, Tyler’s dad, from Daniel’s soccer team. It was fun to see a familiar face. Uncle Kevin was waiting for us at the airport with Stephen in the car. We were all so happy to see him…he was giggling. Uncle Kevin drove us to the Rieder’s house where our van awaited us. As we drove into their driveway, a look of panic crossed Stephen’s face. He relaxed when we transferred him to the van. When we arrived at home, he just lost it. From the time we entered the driveway for at least 30+ minutes after, he just screamed and wasn’t consoled….we think that he was just letting it all loose, releasing his stress of not having us. Fortunately, the boy is always calmed by a bath, and when we popped him in, he instantly relaxed. We were all in bed quite early that night since we had been up since 2 AM Spokane time. It felt good to be in our own beds, and all together again. Stephen settled in quite quickly, although didn’t want his parents out of his sight for too long at all.
Erin: I liked the Natural History Museum. I liked it because it had a butterfly habitat and then we went to the bugs place and it was right next to the butterflies. It was full of spiders! I liked Williamsburg. It was one of my favorites. Another thing I liked, it was fun to get ice cream in the middle of the night (9pm – in Yorktown) because it was so hot. Also, I liked the Spy Museum because there was ductwork over all the people that were there in one room.
Daniel: I really liked the Spy museum because it reminds me of crafty, secret and smart people. I like the Natural History museum because of all of the cool animals and all of the cool things there. I liked Jamestown and Williamsburg because they were completely modern day, 1766 – something like that, and the way people acted things out was very interesting to me especially since they did it every day.
Campbell: Well, I liked the plane rides because I hadn’t been on a plane in four years. I loved Gettysburg! I very much liked the National Archives. I liked all of the different restaurants such as: Ruby Tuesday’s, the Thai Restaurant, the Iron Gate, Kellari, and Beacon Grill. I liked the White House a lot, and I liked the Spy Museum as well.
The days, weeks and months following have been full of sweet memories…”Can you believe we just flew across the country and were in Washington D.C……?” When we see a picture of the Capitol, or the D.C. area, we yell, “Hey we were there!” Erin started learning about Ancient Egypt this year and was thrilled that she could say that she saw many Egyptian artifacts at the Museum of Natural History. As Daniel began studying the settlement of Jamestown, it was a joy for him to bring in pictures of the original site to his class, the Revolutionary War is just around the corner for him in school. Campbell is preparing to study the Civil War and specifically Gettysburg, and can’t wait to put all of the pieces together after being there. Dennis is delighted in school this year now having a treasure trove of replicas of primary sources for hands on learning, as well as first hand experience of so much of the history of our country. It seems history has come alive for us all. And Wendy, well, her love tank just filled to spilling over with all of the quality time she had with everyone. She loved the history too!
And yet the best part is the memories as a family. It was a week soaking in family time. We have such full memories of fun, learning and discovering together, joking, and just simply enjoying one another…that unfortunately seems harder in daily life. We loved every minute of our time together and see it as such a blessing from the Lord. The trip was seamless and only His hand could work such a time. There was no arguing, no meltdowns, no whining, nothing lost (for too long), nothing we didn't do that was planned...it couldn't have been better, except if Stephen had been older and was able to have gone with us. Times like this are a gift and we will never, never forget what we were given, in fact it continues to impact us. We are so grateful to the Welch family for their generosity and to the Lord for making it happen.
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