You couldn't make this story up!

I apologize in advance for the length of this entry but our trip home was so full of drama I had to write it all down!

The good news is that Sadie is home and adjusting well to her new environment! She had a great night’s sleep (in her crib) and I did as well! However, our trip home was a bit dramatic!

I should start by saying that Sadie’s foster mom said she had had a little diarrhea when teething—she is about to get another tooth and had some diarrhea Friday morning—not really bad but something I was hoping wouldn’t happen on the trip home.

The plane trip from Guatemala to Miami was great! Sadie was happy and playing, all smiley and giggly. She didn’t cry at all and I fed her when we took off and landed…so though she rubbed her ears a few times it didn’t seem to bother her too much.

I should say I had been warned about going through Miami because of how long it typically takes to get through immigration. But, I figured a 2 ½ hour layover should be plenty of time.

First of all we were about ½ hour late simply because we couldn’t get to the gate. Apparently there had been some sort of water main break at the airport that day which put everything behind.

Once off the plane we headed through immigration and they check out the passports. In Guatemala they give you a big sealed immigration packet that you have to give to the officer. You then get ushered into a room where you sit and wait while they “process the paperwork.” There were 2 other adoptive families in the room who I had seen at the Embassy as well, and then about 20 other people. There is one guy working and it seems to take about 10-15 minutes for each packet. I’m quickly calculating how many packets are in front of me and starting to worry a bit about making my connection. The other 2 families had connections about 20 minutes before me so they were really antsy.

Anyhow, I have Sadie strapped on the front of me in a carrier and she’s tired so I’m moving around trying to get her to go to sleep. All of the sudden, out of nowhere, everything she had eaten that day comes flying out of her mouth (remember she is strapped to my front!) It just kept coming and coming drenching both of us!!! The other mothers rushed to my aid and they sent me back to a bathroom halfway back through the lines of people waiting to get their passports stamped!!

Anyhow, I got her cleaned up and luckily I had a few changes of clothes for her and one extra shirt for me! Of course changing your clothes with a small child is no easy feat but we got it accomplished, got back to the room and the other 2 families were still there…Sadie seemed fine and I attributed it to me feeding her too much on the plane (trying to make sure her ears popped), bouncing her too much and maybe being strapped too tightly in the carrier.

Finally they get through with my packet around 8:30. My connection is at 8:55 so I think I can make it but when you go on an international flight you have to claim your luggage and then re-check it. I now have Sadie in the stroller (she is seeming fine after purging herself of everything in her stomach), and we get on the elevator to go to the baggage claim area. I’m there with 2 women who are appropriately oohing and aahing over Sadie and all of the sudden I say, “are we moving?” We push the button again, nothing happens, we push another button nothing happens, we push the door open button, nothing happens. Yes, folks, I was STUCK IN THE ELEVATOR IN THE MIAMI AIRPORT!!!! We pushed the alarm, someone came on and then came back a few minutes later and said they just called fire rescue and they’d be here in about 10 minutes. So, at this point, I’m pretty sure all hope is lost! True to their word they arrived in about 10 minutes and we got out.

Now, I had to rush and find my luggage (of course sitting abandoned in the middle of the baggage claim area since I had been in immigration for a good hour and a half!). I find it and take off to re-check. I have to say this is the one piece of the trip I didn’t prepare for and kind of forgot about…on my two visit trips though I flew through Charlotte and the re-check for the luggage was just a few yards away. Not apparently so in Miami!!! IT WAS MILES!!!! I kept going and going pushing a stroller and pulling a huge bag with another bag perched on top—I was sweating like crazy (actually that started earlier when Sadie was strapped to me—she’s like a little oven)…and I finally end up at the ticket area. I’m still a little unclear if that is where I was supposed to be or not but it’s irrelevant because at this point it is time for my plane to be leaving. All I can see around me are lines and lines of people. I finally grabbed one agent and he said, yes, you’re too late for the Tampa flight, you’ll have to reschedule for something tomorrow. Oh no!!!

So, I get in line contemplating what to do. I’m so close (4 hours away), should I just rent a car and drive home? How will Sadie deal with a car seat for 4 hours—she’s never been in one? But, she’s really tired, it’s past her bedtime, she’ll probably just sleep, etc., etc. I suddenly see one of the families in front of me who missed their flight as well. I get their attention and tell them my elevator story and they are appropriately horrified.

I’ve decided to at least stay in line and get rebooked for the morning and then I’ll think about the car thing…Sadie is getting restless so I pick her up out of her stroller and feel wetness…not just normal wet—we’re talking wet poop all over her backside soaking through her pajamas!!! AAAAAHHHHHH!

I summon the other mother who has moved over to the seats and left her husband in line…I show her Sadie’s bottom and ask if she’ll watch my stuff while I go clean her up…she very sweetly obliges. I put the third outfit on Sadie now nervous that she is really sick and I’m stuck in Miami for the night…I put her back in the stroller (she still acts fine she’s just obviously tired), and go back where the family has my luggage and is watching it. They have been given a voucher for a hotel and for food so they are going to eat at the Burger King right there and say they will watch my stuff while I get back in line and I am welcome to join them (they were my guardian angels that night—I don’t know what I would have done without them…)…

I go to get back in line and the line is closed…I’m pretty much on edge at this point. I go to the other line they suggested and there must be 30 people in line…there is no way I am getting back in that line with a poopy baby!!! I go downstairs (on the escalator—no more elevators) to check out the car rental place—can’t find anyone at any of them. I go back to my friendly family (I don’t even know their last name) and tell them I don’t want to keep them…they haven’t eaten yet so I decide to try once at the “closed line” since they are helping the last two customers. I go up and pull the “sick baby card”. At this point I pick her up again—and yes, poop oozing through once more. I show the man her butt and beg, “please help me…I can’t stand in line…I have a sick baby…I was stuck in an elevator…I was in line before but had to go clean her up…” He very reluctantly nods and then an argument ensues between him and another worker about whether or not they should help me…

I finally get up apologizing profusely and explaining I don’t usually ask for special treatment…the woman tells me she can’t give me a hotel or food since none of this was the fault of the airline!! (I should add I haven’t eaten anything since brunch in Guatemala around 9:30 that morning)…luckily the other mother comes over and explains I was on the same flight that was stuck on the runway and that’s the magic info that gets me a hotel room and food. (That seemed so inconsequential compared to everything else going on). I try to get to the same hotel as nice family…but she says it’s full and sends me to another hotel instead. I’m feeling only slightly better and the 2nd bout of diarrhea really wasn’t…the first one had just leaked into her stroller so there was now transfer from the stroller to her pjs. (She’s now on her last onesie—no pants—although I am still dragging around all of my luggage—or at least nice family is doing so for me!!!)

I go in and get something to eat at the Burger King with them. I get in and they warn me it’s taking forever—there apparently seems to be one person working who comes, takes your order and then goes back and cooks it!...I order anyhow and that goes fine.

I finally decide I have to leave nice family (which made me nervous) and venture on my own to the hotel. There is supposedly a shuttle right outside. I go out there (I now have my luggage on a cart so I’m pulling a cart while pushing the stroller). Millions of people outside, I finally see my shuttle…they pull up…nice father helps me get my luggage to the van…nice shuttle driver loads everything…the horror of the night is at least close to subsiding.

I get to the hotel…Sadie has fallen asleep on my shoulder as soon as we get into the shuttle. Nice, nice shuttle driver unloads all my luggage and brings it in to the hotel. I manage to transfer Sadie to the poopy stroller without her waking up. I get to the desk, and they say, “WE DON’T HAVE ANY MORE ROOMS!!!” The tears are welling up and I milked that a little so they’d feel sorry for me—I must admit!!! They quickly assure me that I can go to the Marriott which is right next door and the shuttle will take me. Nice shuttle man comes back and is even nicer in his broken English saying, “you take baby, I take everything else…”…it is all loaded up again, Sadie back in my arms (luckily once she’s asleep there’s no waking her..) and back on the shuttle. We get to the Marriot and I get up to the desk and say, “I’ve had a really bad night, it included being stuck in an elevator at the airport which caused me to miss my flight, and if you tell me you don’t have any rooms, I’m going to have a meltdown.” The man quickly assured me he did and we finally got to the room. It is now about 11:30. Sadie slept pretty well. I slept not at all because all I could think about again was getting that *#()#@ luggage back to the airport and checked…

So, up at 5 a.m. on the shuttle at 6—again another nice shuttle driver loads everything for me…luckily he pulls right up the American curbside bag check place…the baggage comes out, some man comes to help me…I think I’m almost rid of this stupid luggage, and he says, “were you rescheduled after missing a plane?” I answer yes. Then I hear those dreaded words, “I can’t check your baggage here because it’s still checked through to Tampa in your name.” I again pull the screwed up I’m going to lose it face and he asks if I have my baggage claim tickets from the night before. Thankfully I did and he rechecked them for me.

(yes, I promise the story is almost over…) It’s a good thing he did that because again I had to walk about a mile and a half to get to my gate. On the way I saw the place where you have to take your luggage to get scanned…not sure I ever would have made it—especially because Sadie was not wanting to sit in poopy stroller in the morning and was insisting I carry her. We FINALLY get through check-in, fed her a bottle and she slept the whole way on the flight. The only bad thing was just as we were taxing down the runway to take off—I smelled the inmistakable poop smell again. She was sleeping peacefully, the flight is only 45 minutes long and there was no way I was waking her up to try and change her diaper in the airplane bathroom so I tightly wrapped a blanket around her butt trying to contain the smell for the trip. I think I did so pretty well.

I was never so glad to be home in my life!!!!

The bad news is Sadie still has pretty bad diarrhea. However she has no other symptoms and other than sleeping a little more than normal she seems fairly happy. We are trying to keep her hydrated and she’s happy to drink her pedialyte…

So, overall we had a great trip in Guatemala. Only after hitting Miami did things go downhill! One big throw up, about 14 poopy diapers, a stuck elevator, and being sent to a full hotel…what a story to tell Sadie about her pick up trip!

I’ve learned a lot in the last few days but mostly about the kindness of strangers. There were certainly a lot of people who went out of their way to help me through this drama and for that I am thankful…and also…never use the elevator in the Miami airport!!!