Comical.... It's just comical at this point

Another day, another delay. This was supposed to be the smoothing sailing (or rather flying) day! We got up and atta 'em early this morning ready to begin our fourth trip to Mother Russia. As you know, our passports and visas were scheduled to be delivered in St. Louis this morning before 8 AM . The first thing Brock did this morning was roll over and check the tracking number on the package. It was signed for by a B SMith at 7:30 in the morning. I had a brief moment of panic as we have a B Smith -as in the ever dependable, wouldn't be able to have been able to do everything we've needed to do,Brooke Smith in BLOOMFIELD! Thankfully, she is not the only B Smith in the world and our passports were safe and ready to be picked up. Once we got going, we realized we were actually about an hour and a half early that what we normally are when we travel. When we got to the arirport, and tried to check in, our reservations were not found. Deep breaths. An US Airways agent came over and gave us a veiled look of pity for the customers who obviously had no idea how to use a kiosk and then we heard her give a puzzled "hmmm". She took our passports to her computer and after several keystrokes and a short eternity, she told us that we didn't have any flights. US Airways had cancelled them on the 18th because Lufthansa never sent them the ticket confirmations. We were going to have to call Lufthansa. Praise God for cell phones and computers! Brock talked for an hour and 40 minutes to a Luthansa rep named Kim, the Austrailian resident of Canada, who was not going to get off the phone until it was straightened out or until our flight left whichever came first. Across the counter was Kathleen, who also was not going anywhere until we were on our way. She told us that her shift ended at 2 but, she would stay until it was finishied. But she did have to be at the hospital by 3:30. Turns out, our newest friend Kathleen S. is battling breast cancer. She is doing well and is in good spirits, but stilll needs prayer. Also, miraculously, Kathleen decided to do a quick check to see how many seats were left on the flight to Charlotte. You guessed it...there were two. She reserved them so no one else could snag them and the three of us watied patiently for Kim from Lufthansa to work her magic. It was no one's fault, just a computer glitch and we were exceedlingly thankful for the gracious ladies who were doing their very best to make things right for us. Remember that as your deal with the people whose jobs are to provide a service for you. It's so much easier for them to want to help you when you are pleasant with them. At 12:17, Kathleen told Kim that she was going to have to let us get to our gate if we were going to make our flight. She had secured our seats on the flight from St. Louis to Charlotte. We raced through security and through the terminal to be two of the last people to get on board. As of this moment, I am flying in the air (although I won't be able to publish this until we get on the ground) with our passports, our bags checked through to St. Petersburg, two more boarding passes for Brock to Munich and St. Petersburg and still only one for me. As soon as we hit the ground in Charlotte, we have to race to the Lufthansa counter and pray that Kim was able to rebook my cancelled flight. Truth be told, I am praying right now. If you remember, I am memorizing the book of James to occupy my thoughts when I start getting anxious. The irony of verse two of this exercise is not lost on me. "Consider it pure joy my brothers when you face trials of many kinds because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance and perseverance must complete it's work in you so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking in anything." Right out of the starting gate... Nevertheless, I am extremely optimistic about this trip. In faith, I packed a coat, snow bibs and snowboots for Roman in case we do get to bring him home. In faith, we've brought all of the paperwork necessary to get Roman's passport and visa at the embassy. It is not my desire at all to be presumptous, but simply prepared to receive a miracle if God so chooses to bless us this way. For this moment though, I'm awaiting His provision in Charlotte.