Sending a shout-out to our sweet friends who gave us a gift of money to buy a netbook so I have a way of (at least attempting) communicating while away. You know who you are and we're overwhelemed by your generosity.
Sitting in the airport awaiting our first leg of the flight. Would love to be able to put in words what's going through my mind, but my head is spinning. For starters, i'm dreading the thought of being away from George and the kids for any significant length of time. I'm also a bit worried about the flight. Or, not so much the flight, but landing in Kinshasa after dark. I'm sure it will be very evident that we're visitors! But, more than all those thoughts, I keep thinking of sweet Caleb and how I can't wait to love on him! I'm thinking about how much he and so many other orphans deserve a family. Caleb is one of the fortunate of the over five million orphans in the D.R. Congo. So many will remain orphans, never having a family to show them the love they so deserve.
I also know that visiting a place like the D.R.C. will change me. I've known that since we started this adoption process. I know that I can't visit a place like our son's birth country and come away the same person as before. I'm also sure that even though I know this, I have NO idea how MUCH this will affect me.
My prayer - and you can pray with and for me - is that while I'm there, whether for a short or longer amount of time, I will have an opportunity to make a difference, to be a blessing in some way to others. Don't know who or what or how, but I'm remaining open. :)
Before we left church today, my whole family (minus my brother, Todd) was there to see us off to the airport. What a blessing it was to have them there to support Vickie and I as we began the traveling part of this journey. Thanks, Dad, for being a great leader and praying with us before we left. What a special time!

And, we're off.....here we go!