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Saturday, May 28, 2005
Only 1 more day
So we are leaving on monday and I am a little scared. I guess it is a good scared, but nonetheless frightened. We are slowly getting around to that packing thing. I actually have to remind myself that we are going to meet our son. We have been so busy with preparations that I keep forgetting that there is actually a purpose for this visit.
So here is how the trip is going to work out. We leave at 1:20pm from Seattle and arrive in Seoul, Korea at 5:00pm on the 31st (the next day!) We will meet up with Candy and Doug Jobes in the airport and have dinner with them. They are also travelling to Khabarovsk to meet their daughter. We then have a 16 hour layover in Korea where we will get some sleep at the transit hotel. We then depart at 9:30 am for Khab and arrive at 2:30pm. We probably won't get to go to the orphanage that day, but we will keep our fingers crossed. We are told we only will get to see the baby for 2-2 1/2 hours each day we are there. But of course we are only there 2 full days.
We plan on having dinner with 5 other families that first night in town. There is one family already there, they had their court date on the 24th. Then 3 families have their court dates the 31st, the 2nd and the 3rd. One big happy family! It will be so much fun to finally see these faces in person.
We will also get to see a family friend who lives in Khabarovsk. Galina Potapova is a friend of Derek's mom and has graciously agreed to see us while we are there. We have not seen her in close to 10 years. We hope she will be able to show us some sights of her town.
We then come home on Saturday the 4th. We depart Khab at 3:40 and arrive in Seattle at 10:10pm. Of course we will have stops in Seoul and LAX. Then it will be off and running to finish up our paperwork so we can go back as soon as possible!
We have one request from our family and friends. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel and also pray for the children we will leave behind. We are preparing ourselves to leave the baby in the orphanage, but we need as much support we can get. We can't do this alone. Also, if you have the time please leave us a comment on the blog. We will be able to read email and maybe post to the blog. But we would love to hear some of your well-wishes while we are gone. It makes us feel very good to know that we have the support of so many.
Blessings to you all! Lisa
Friday, May 20, 2005
Traveling Soon!
Yesterday was an exciting day. We received a package from FedEx that contained our tickets to Russia and our visa paperwork to get into the country. It's hard to believe that after all this time talking about our child that was out there in Russia "somewhere" that will be leaving a week from Monday to finally go meet him. We still have lots to do in order to get ready including packing and coming up with the donations we need to bring to the orphanage, but we'll get there. If we get a chance, I'll try to post to the blog during the trip but the technology may be hard to come by. We appreciate all your prayers and support during this time and look forward to meeting, cuddling and kissing our new son!
Thursday, May 05, 2005
It's official!
Ok, so I am really starting to freak out now. I got the official word today that we will be traveling June 1 through June 4. Now mind you Derek and I have never been out of North America. We will have a 16 hour lay over in Seoul Korea. I am so excited to finally meet our son, but this whole travel thing is very frightening.
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Incredible News!
For those of you who haven't heard, Lisa and I received our referral! We officially have a son. The most the I can tell you is that he is located in the Khabarovsk region and that he is absolutely adorable. Of course I'm not biased or anything :) Unfortunately due the privacy agreement with Russia and the agency, we can't post his picture or give out many details yet. When we can, be assured that we will get some pictures up on this site.
As it stands right now, we will be in Russia to visit him and officially apply for the adoption June 1st through June 4th. It takes 2 days (because of layovers and that pesky dateline) to get from here to Khabarovsk. So in all likelihood we will be leaving May 30th. Between now and then we will be packing, praying, worrying, and getting more excited by the day. We ask you all for prayers for safe travel, for our son and for his caretakers at the orphanage. I will post more details as they become available.