Icing on the Cake

~63~

“Are you ready to go?” I asked Luke the morning we were going to pick up Julia, Anastasia and Adam form the airport.

“Yeah,” Calum said. “I’m so nervous.”

“I am too.” I said, taking Calum’s hand. It was noticeably shaking. “It’s going to be okay. It’s going to be okay! We’re going to meet our children!”

Calum was shaking from nerves so noticeably that the keys in his other hand were rattling.

“I think I should drive.” I suggested. Calum agreed. I handed him the sign we would hold by baggage claim that said “Julia Boiko” and I took the car keys from him.

“What time does the plane come in?” Calum said, looking at the clock in the car and then looking at the traffic we were stuck in.

“Two-thirty.” I said.

“It’s one-forty-five already.” Calum said, nervously.

“I know.” I said. I couldn’t believe that I was the one that was being the calm one in the situation. I was never the calm one. “But the GPS says we’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

We arrived a little after two, and walked in. We got to baggage claim, and saw that the plane was right on time. At two-thirty, we started holding up the sign.

Around two-forty, we saw a girl with two small, three-and-a-half-year-old-looking children walking up. We had wired them a little money so they could get passports and visas.

The girl walked up to us. We knew Julia was eighteen, and this girl looked far younger, like she was maybe fifteen or sixteen. She was very short, maybe 5’3, 5’4. Just like the boy and girl with her, she had light brown hair that fell to her shoulders, fair skin and dark eyes. The little girl’s hair was also shoulder length, but the boy’s was short.

“You are Luke and Calum?” She said with a thick accent, struggling to speak in English.

“I am Luke. He is Calum” I said, trying to speak in as small of words as possible. “Are you Julia?”

“I am Julia.” She said. “My children, Anastasia, Adam.”

“Hello Anastasia and Adam.” I said, leaning down to look at them. They looked blankly at me, possibly a little scared because they were looking at a stranger. Calum then did the same.

Even though Julia said "my children," we both knew we were truly meeting our children for the first time.

Notes