Confirmed date

This week has been crazy busy and emotional as one can imagine.

Our poor kids have lost their normal mom and in place have been given a serious space head!  Thankfully, we have the most amazing and awesome and patient (most of the time) kids.  So, if this message is all over the place, I apologize in advance.  Please forgive me.... I have (paper) pregnancy brain ha ha!!!


I had to write out two really big checks this week.  One for the agency fees and the other for our flight.  It is so real now!  I will admit, I am freaking out about the travel....freaking out!  No matter how many people tell me, it will be ok...it still doesn't help!  Not until I am experiencing it for myself.  Instead, I am trying very hard to fight off all images, etc. that keep popping up in my head.  If you would like to pray for me personally...this is where I need it...peace of mind.  Corey too....we are a bit scatterbrained. He is having a hard time concentrating at work when his mind is across the ocean. 

The girls are super super super excited.  The youngest has been waiting almost two years to share her room with New Sister.  She has New Sister's life all planned out already.  It's SO cute!

So, when do we leave?  We will be leaving for the airport on the 22th.  We will stay in London for the night and arrive in B*lg*r*a for the 24th.  We should be able to see New Sister on the Monday...yay!  Our travel agent said we are able to bring 3 suitcases with us and so we plan to take as much as we can to the orphanage.  If you have stuff, let me know and I can arrange something :)

My mom will be driving up to watch the kids while we are travelling.  Please keep her in your prayers.  She may be travelling alone 6 hours in the snow and that can be REALLY scary!  We are so thankful that she was able to get the time off to help.  It will be the very longest I have ever been away from my kids.  Other than hospital stays, I have never been away from the kids.  Can you see why I am freaking now?!?!  It made me physically sick just writing out that sentence :( I am sorry to anyone who comes in contact with me in the next month (plus last week).

Our main man (driver/translator) in B*lg*r*a got permission to take pictures and a video of our girl to send us.  He is going there on Wednesday to do this.  I sure hope he is quick with feedback!  The curiosity is killing me!!!  The picture that we got with her referral is almost a year old and it isn't clear what color her eyes are.  Maybe she will be crawling by then...eek!

I got the photo book completed a few days ago.  A very good friend of mine took some pictures for us.  She came the night I asked her so that we could get the book ordered and here before we left.  We had just got home from school and swimming lessons and work....it was chaos.  I wondered how she would take a decent picture of us since we spent no time getting pretty ha ha!  She did over and above what I had envisioned.  SHE EVEN BROUGHT US SUPPER to eat after we were done!!!  Seriously, she is awesome!!!  We are so blessed to have amazing people here!!!  So blessed!

One of my sister's also got the brunt of the chaotic photo book. Because, my family all lives elsewhere, she was the lucky one to run around the city taking pictures of grandparents, great grandparents, aunts/uncles, cousins.  She downloaded them into the program as I was creating ha ha!  I am truly grateful for her help with this project too.  Now to wait for it and pray it turned out well.

Because of the surprise (grr) increase (grr) in fees (grr) that we received this last month (~$4000), we have been FREAKING about finances.  We're so dumb.  We know better.  God brought us here, God will get us through it.  And He is.  We were blessed with a lovely financial gift yesterday.  It has taken us out of the red in terms of our projected budget for this trip.  We are without words at how amazing it is to watch God's hand in every teeny tiny aspect.  Even the bank paid for most of the fees/transactions that involved the adoption. Why do I put pressure on myself?  It doesn't help.  God's got this one. 

Hmmm...I don't know what else needs to be covered.  Thanks for the support.  Thanks for the prayers.  Thanks.  We can't WAIT to meet our daughter :)