Kate Meyer and Adam Jankowski had just returned to the U. S. after honeymooning in Africa and were waiting out a 10-hour connecting time at Washington-Dulles before they changed the plane to their home in South Carolina.
It had been a dream ____1____. Along with their memories, they also brought back a beautiful, one-of-a-kind ____2____ of three African wild dogs created by a local artist they had met at Victoria Falls. For safekeeping, they rolled the artwork in a tube and hand-carried it on their ____3____.
Upon arriving at Dulles ____4____ a 28-hour journey, Kate and Adam freshened up and began looking for ways to ____5____ themselves during their long connecting time. One of the airport customer service representatives ____6____ that they should go into Washington, D. C , and visit the National Air and Space Museum, an idea to which they readily ____7____.
After spending a few hours at the ____8____, they got on a city bus and returned to the airport before the boarding time. It was then Kate noticed that Adam wasn’t ____9____ the tube with the painting. Before they got off, she asked Adam where the painting was, and at that moment, she watched his heart ____10____. The last time Adam had seen it was when he leaned it against the charging station in the terminal when they first arrived.
Trying not to ____11____, Kate checked with the airport Lost and Found, and Adam ran back to ____12____ he’d last had the painting, but it was ____13____. Running short on options and ____14____, they grew more upset. Finally they went to the airport customer service counter, where they met Bella Beyene-Seboka. What happened next ____15____ Kate and Adam so much. Positive and ____16____, Bella said she wasn’t willing to give up and would do everything she could to find the painting.
Bella knew that many times misplaced items get turned in at gate podiums(登机口检票台). The three of them ____17____ the gate podiums. The first podium turned up empty, but at the second one, they found the tube with the painting, safe and sound.
They were all so ____18____. The couple were in tears, hugging Bella and thanking her. Bella said she ____19____ loved knowing she’d helped people, and that was why she didn’t give up.
The painting now hangs in Kate and Adam’s home as a daily reminder of not only an unbelievable trip, but of the unbelievable ____20____ shown to them that day by Bella.