Travel Preparation and Thank you!

Hi all,

Well, I got through our 1+ hour conference call with all of the travel info from our agency today. Phew!! We are 1 of 21 families with our agency traveling on the 8th!! Yes, I typed 21!! Many of us have older children (older than infant) and children with special needs, and we are coming from all over the U.S. How exciting to travel with such a big group!! We also got our itinerary (and paid our hefty "in-country package" bill!) and found out that our "Gotcha Day" is Monday, January 12th. So, you can pray extra hard that day for Bethany as she meets her parents!

I wanted to take a minute to just share my thanks to everyone that has been a part of this road with us...there have been SO MANY of you praying for us, donating to our "bring Bethany home" fund, encouraging us, etc. And many now are set up to help us with logistical issues while we are away - taking care of our kids, transporting them to and from activities, watching our house, boarding our dog, shoveling our walk, taking us to and from the airport, covering our duties at work while we are away...the list goes on and on!! It is truly amazing how God has worked all things together to get this beautiful little girl home. Wow. Our God is an awesome God, and we are humbled by His love for us and for Bethany.

Again, thanks to all of you. You are forever a part of Bethany's life and ours. We love you!

Becky

Bethany's birthday is this week.

This week Bethany turns three on this coming Thursday, December 11. This comes with gladness and sadness as we wait for word on when we travel. We are planning to have a celebration as a family. This keeps the boys excited about their sister's arrival as well.

We did finally receive communication from our agency on Thursday providing instruction on how to file for our visas. So that provides a little encouragement that at least we are able to progress forward ever so slightly. We also heard but haven't confirmed that costs may be going up after January 1st so we hope that we are able to move forward before then. This certainly costs enough already! Please pray for us for patience and courage as we prepare for our journey. It would be great to hear from you as well. Drop us a note.

Letter to Bethany:
Bethany,

We wonder, wait, hope and pray for you. We loved you before we even met you. We knew that God had chosen you just as he chose your brothers to be a special part of our family. We can't wait to finally meet you and bring you home.

Love,

Mom, Dad, Matthew, Trent and Toby

Why are we blogging? Why are we adopting?

We want to share our journey to adopting Bethany and many other details along the way. Hopefully, after this chapter has moved past we will be able to share another exciting way in which God has changed our lives. We continue to be amazed every day at how He has transformed the way that we think about and view the world. It wasn't long ago that we were arguing over when to start having kids and then how many to have. About two years ago Becky and I somehow got onto the subject of adoption and weren't sure why but wanted to learn more. Before you know it we were ordering information packets from adoption agencies and late at night after the kids were in bed sat up and watched the informational videos. There was a particular video that shared one family's experiences throughout their adoption of a Chinese orphan. By the end of the DVD we were both in tears. Unexplainable and uncontrollable tears. I'm embarassed sharing that here but have to admit that I was moved to do something that I'd never imagined doing until that moment. All of the stuff before then was just talk. We both knew at that moment that this is something we were going to do. We didn't know how much it would cost, what circumstances we would face from moving forward but knew that this was what we were supposed to do. I've never been more certain of something God has called me to do in my life. The next post will include our next steps in the process and how the rest of the family responded to the idea. See you then!
--Dan