Following is a little story written by Joy, one of our escorts who, along with another escort, Lucy recently accompanied 2 little ones from Paris to Chicago. Onyx, 5 months old had a severe cleft lip and palate and Alvin, 2 1/2 had an imperforate anus. Both would have corrective surgery in Ohio sponsored by Children’s Medical Missions. The attached picture is of our 4 escorts changing hands in Chicago. The reason I am only using first names is because neither Joy nor Lucy wanted their last names mentioned.

I recently participated in an Airline Ambassador project to help bring a couple of babies from Africa who were headed to the US to have surgery in Ohio. I was part of a team of escorts in a quite complicated maze of paperwork, visas, and dozens of other details that our director, Margaret seems to manage flawlessly.

Onyx and Alvin came up from the Ivory Coast to Paris with Amélie, an escort from Aviation sans Frontières. I flew to Chicago and met the other escort, Lucy who is also a flight attendant, and we boarded a flight to Paris. We spent a fun day in Paris together and return to the airport the following morning to meet the children and Amélie. We had a wonderful trip with the children! It was so much fun to participate in a project with two babies, especially since we had each other for support.

We brought them back to Chicago where another team of escorts, Laurie and Evelyn met us and took them on to Ohio. Another thing that was nice was that the same flight attendants who brought us into Paris were the same team that brought us home. So they already knew the story and were expecting the children. They could not have been nicer nor more accommodating. When the children are recovered from their surgeries they will be returned to their homeland.

I wanted to share a few things I jotted down during my time with Onyx, 5 months and maybe 10 pounds and Alvin, 2 1/2.

What I learned:

I learned that when you carry a baby in a front carrier on your chest, your body temperature goes up about 10 degrees.

I learned that the leg truly does fit into the armhole of a baby front carrier and I was still confused when I had an extra limb I wasn’t sure where to put.

I learned that babies have lip gloss in their hair because you can’t help kissing their precious little heads.

I learned that babies really do weigh 5 pounds more when they are asleep.

I learned mothers have sore hands because they really need 4 hands, not 2.

I learned it’s hard to feed yourself with a baby in the front carrier. Onyx had a REAL experience with my crusty Parisian roll that I had for breakfast. I learned that after a few hours you are only careful with hot beverages and get over the crumbs

I learned after an embarrassing maybe 12 to 15 minutes that pacifiers have a hard plastic cover. Onyx did not mind; we both were having several firsts together on this trip.

God says he literally knits us together in our mothers womb. I learned that when you hold a baby your heart knows it’s really true.

Lastly, I learned that you really can fall in love at first sight – especially in Paris!