Homecoming

I know I promised more details about our actual trip to India, BUT... my dad just sent these pictures of our arrival at the airport in our hometown. I just had to share them because we weren't complete until we were reunited with our homegrown clan! We were greeted at the airport by our children, parents, and my brother with his family. It was precious, low-key, and (to borrow from Mary Poppins) "nearly perfect in every way."

God Blessed America!!

We are so thankful to be home again!! Travel made us grateful to be US citizens and a part of this wonderful country. We literally wanted to KISS the ground at the airport in Atlanta. We missed our flight home on Saturday night due to the volcanic ash again. We thought we would have to stay in Paris and all we wanted was to be back in the US again. They did finally let our plane leave Paris 3 hours late only to take a huge detour making that flight 11 hours instead of 8 hours. I want to share everything about our trip, but I think I will span it over several posts. For now, I wanted to share what we have all been waiting for... pictures of Joseph with his parents!!! I will also take this opportunity to brag a little. We have nicknamed our child "wonder baby". He amazes us every day with his temperament, spirit, and delightful personality. He is all we could have ever hoped for...we are deeply in love.

Memories of Waiting

As our time of "waiting for Joseph" comes to an end, I decided to make a slide show of his photos. This will be my last post before traveling and the last photos of our precious son without his family. All of the details of the trip are falling into place. We are blessed beyond measure by so many friends and family members encouraging and helping to make this trip happen on such short notice. Also, our wonderful Tami with Dillon is completely priceless. Seriously DO NOT know what we would do without her! I am so glad we decided to do the trip this way. It is crazy, hectic, a little stressful, BUT at least it is only crazy, hectic stressful for 3 days instead of 2 weeks! It works for us! We will not be taking a computer with us, but I will be calling home and my dad may post prayer requests and updates as I pass those along. Please pray for our precious boys we are leaving in Missouri. They are asking morbid questions and expressing some fear. All I can tell them is that God is in control and will take care of our family. I wish I could promise them that we will come home. I tell them that we will be safe, we will pray, and that we plan to come home with their baby brother next Saturday! We appreciate your prayers for them. Thank you all my Bloggy Friends!

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Off We Go!!

We have had a whirlwind kind of a day!!! We thought that we were going to have to wait until Wed or Thursday to make travel plans because we had to wait for the orphanage to get Joseph's passport. Well, we got an email this morning saying that they have it!!! SOOOO, we contacted a travel agent and found out that for just a LITTLE BIT more money, we could land in Kolkata on his Birthday!!! OH MY!! THEN, we will be HOME the day before Mother's day. That means we will be in Missouri with ALL of our children for Mother's Day! No cooler gift than that! We could have waited another week and had one less layover, but have I mentioned that I WANT MY BABY??!! Needless to say... Paris sounds great for a layover! We are leaving THIS THURSDAY!!!!!! Please pray for all of the last minute details. We are packed and the boys are ecstatic. They just want their baby, too. We are to the point that we want this whole thing done and are ready to start our lives as a family of 5!

PASSPORT!!!

We received wonderful news yesterday! Joseph's passport was issued in India!!!!! I was at work all day and didn't even check our e-mails. I figured we wouldn't hear anything because it was the weekend. Then, I called Bill from work and asked him to read a message from the church regarding Sunday School. He paged me a few minutes later to ask if I had checked messages. I said, "no, why?". Then, he shared the news--- Joseph has a passport!! I guess Tami must have talked to the orphanage yesterday morning and then notified us. Now, we must wait until the orphanage has the physical passport in their hands to buy the tickets, but we are looking at the first week of May for travel!!!! Less than 2 weeks away and we will be holding our Joseph!! We get to call and check with a travel agent Monday for flight availability, but are not allowed to "pull the trigger" and purchase anything until we get the green light from Dillon. Our family is elated and ready to hop a jet plane! Right now, I'm off to worship my Lord! Happy Lord's Day, everyone!

Hardest Wait!

Okay, so we have been in this adoption for 2 years now and this last step might be the hardest one. He is ours. We know it in our hearts, minds, house,and even LEGALLY.... BBUUUUUTTTTT.... we can't go scoop him up and bring him home yet!!!!!!! We are still waiting on his passport to be completed. UGH! It hasn't even been that long, but each minute is dragging on as I JUST WANT MY BABY!! Enough whining for now. I got a new picture that is DEFINITELY my new fav. He's changing so fast... will I recognize him? Hurry up, passport, before there is no baby left and he is all "big boy":)

Surprising Thoughts

The "legals" for our Joseph have arrived!!! They are in my/our hands (well, Bill is still at work) and it feels so wonderful, yet sad at the same time. I want to adopt his birth-mother,too!! Somehow, seeing her name and reading the circumstances in print makes me want to bring both of them home... I wonder if anyone ever does that? Am I strange to want to scoop them both out of there together? My reactions were surprising. Yes, I am joyful and anticipatory regarding my sweet Joseph, but how my heart yearns to show her Christ's love as well. Adoption can feel bitter-sweet when you know the reality of why your child became yours. I think I will always feel connected to this young woman through our precious, soulful-eyed Joseph. I will continue to pray for her.