At the dinner cruise on Saturday night I was seated between the Denver HR manager, R, and C, who works part time at the company. C’s wife, D, also works for the company full time managing a group of chemists (I’m sure her job is more complex than my simple explanation). C and D have one young son and are adopting a new baby boy from Korea. They are waiting for the call to fly to Korea to pick up their new son. D did not attend the meeting in order to care for their young son.
During dinner I came up with what I thought would be a great idea. Plane tickets to Korea from Denver can be very expensive especially when purchased with less than two weeks notice. There are many people at K’s company with hundreds of thousands of frequent flyer miles due to the fact that they fly from the States to Iraq, Afghanistan, Japan, Australia, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and so on. If a group of people donated miles then C would be able to fly to Korea at no cost. Since the company does not reimburse a portion of the adoption fees like my new employer, the free plane ticket would provide a financial break for C and D. They would be able to use money set aside for airfare for other necessary things associated with a new baby. I ran the idea by R, the HR manager. She thought it was a great idea and was going to socialize the idea with a few people. After the main course was served I talked to K about the idea. He thought that the company should use its frequent flyer miles to send C to Korea since the company flew all the spouses to San Francisco on frequent flier miles. There should be no need to solicit employees for donations. K went to talk to P, the Chairman of the Board, about the idea. The Chairman agreed it was a good idea. The company will have enough miles in April for the ticket. Then the Chairman’s wife, S, said that she though D and their young son should go too. She insisted that the company provide free tickets for all three. K came back to the table and told R and I the good news. K filled C in on the plan. The look on his face was a mixture of shock and amazement. I believe he was truly stunned that this happened so quickly. C went outside to call D to tell her to good news.
I was amazed that all this happened within thirty minutes. All K had to do was ask. Now if only they had a program to reimburse a portion of the adoption fees. I wonder if I should email the Chairman’s wife.
The Corporate Slave 
Well, we haven’t heard from her yet – so maybe you should. I wouldn’t ask for anything more though. This is all ready a HUGE gift…and amounts to MORE than any adoption assistance I have ever heard of.
I am scrambling to get Miles and I passports fast. He has decided it might be fun to play with his brother while “riding something that files.”
You are made of amazing. Have I told you yet that you are MADE OF AMAZING!?
This is awesome! And I love how your friend D has your blog address and can thank you here too!
Diane – I’ll have K call you. He can tell you what the next steps will be. I don’t think Mrs. S will call you. He briefed C on the process but I think he may have been too stunned to remember the details.
I’m happy to read that Miles wants to go so that you can be there with C. There are a few services in DC that expedite passports but they charge a lot of money.
my husband was stunned. and probably beery.
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