The Story of the Airplane
  As my brother tells it, a neighbor boy's been bugging him for several weeks to "build an airplane!".  He got roped into this scheme because the boy said he dreamed about flying around in his own airplane and my brother unwittingly said, "We'll build one, then, so you can fly where ever you want."  Every Sunday morning the boy would knock on his door and ask, "Are we going to build the airplane today?" My brother held him off with, "Not today. Maybe next week."
   One week, he and I were talking and I sent him the URL to a web site about kids in Eastern Europe looking for families  (see the URL in the links area). I told him about the boy who's 14 and been in the orphanage since he was 1 year old! I said, "I can't imagine what he must think about the world and I bet sometimes he thinks no one knows or cares about him! I wish there was a way to let him know. But I don't know where he is, what ohphanage, what town, country and even his name. All I know is the number assigned to his case and the picture on the adoption web site."
   As we talked about it, I was struck by the idea that the airplane's tail number could be the boy's case number. We'd put that on it, take pictures and send the pictures to the agency in hopes that he would about how there are people in this world who love and care about him.
   It was a Thursday when they started construction using 1/4 round, 1/2 round, 1x2 and anything else they would muster up. Originally it was supposed to be a 1/2 scale but it ended up a full scale Piper Tri-Pacer! As the construction proceeded,  there was concern someone might report a downed plane in the backyard!
  Friday night, the construction crew had grown to include almost every kid in the neighborhood. Some were pounding their first nail or sawing their first board! At 2am Saturday morning, they broke for the day and walked in the quiet summer evening to the nearby Deli to get a soda. On the way, my brother told them about the boy in the orphanage and explained the reason the plane was being painted with the tail number of 101187. He told them that "We should all be our brother's keepers, taking care of one another and loving and caring for each other." He told me he knew what Jesus must've felt as the crowd of children hung on every word he said, hushed by the solemness of the occassion.
   They finished the plane and at the ceremony there was a prayer spoken, asking God to watch over those children in orphanages and especially the boy we know as 101187 who's praying that someone, somewhere, sometime, somehow will make him a part of their family!
    So here's to you, our child! Your airplane to fly as high as you can and visit us as often as you like and be a part of our family whenever you like!

  To 101187!
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(added 8/23/00)
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