On my flight back from Texas today, one of the guys sitting beside me told me that, despite nearing retirement age, he and his wife are in the process of adopting their 5-year-old granddaughter because neither their son nor the girl's mom wanted the responsibility of taking care of a child. This reminded me of my flight from Amsterdam to Detroit last Sunday. I'll write much more about my trip to Belgium/the Netherlands later when I get around to it, but I want to go ahead and tell this story lest I forget to tell it later.

On the flight from Amsterdam, there was a man across the isle to my left who was on his way back from Russia. He and his wife are in the process of adopting two Russian kids (ages 5 and 9, or something like that) and had been there visiting them and taking steps to complete the adoption. In the row in front of me was a dad and his teenage daughter. They were returning form Africa (Zambia?) with a little girl (maybe age 9) whom their family was adopting. The wife and the rest of the kids were going to meet them at the airport in Detroit. I thought it was kind of unusual to be sitting so close to two international adoption stories on that flight.

In Detroit, as I was going through customs, I heard loud clapping and cheering coming from the area where people emerge from customs and greet the public. I quickly looked over, wondering what was happening. I couldn't see much, but I caught a glimpse of the dad who was returning from Africa. I realized that what I had heard and glimpsed was a bunch of people warmly and enthusiastically welcoming to America the little girl from Africa. It was beautiful!