A Journey...

When you decide to make a life change, do you prepare yourself a lot of information or do you just jump right in? Hum... I do both. When we first started out looking and pursuing adoption I read and studied myself to death!!!! Oh my, I was constantly filling myself with details and thinking I was doing so much better knowing it all! Yeah right, God showed me that I really only needed to trust him with the details because all of that research I did was for a DIFFERENT country then the one we adopted from!! So, I did some research on the EE (Eastern Europe) country we were adopting from. It is after all a part of my heritage as much as the previous country I studied about. We followed God's lead...

Then to do all the preparing, packing, and exercise a large amount of faith in patiently waiting. My hubby had never traveled out if the country, I had several years prior. Although I was not very successful... I was so very ill with nerves and got sick in flight!! But I was however successful in changing planes!! I was happy about that!

Well the day came...nerves were high and so was the feeling of being ill!! We had a dear wonderful friend bring us to the airport!! Also the one who listened to me daily while I tried to wait patiently! She made me eat a banana, and I felt so much better!!! Then we were off and still a wee bit nervous.

Our plane ride was fine although a little bit cramped for my hubby. (We now spend the extra dollars for the few more inches..makes a huge difference for my much taller then me husband!) Changed planes and landed at our destination country. Got through customs and such and went to look for our driver. Um...not one person with a sign for us. A wee bit of panic set in when I realized I did NOT have the sheet with our in country info contacts! And all of that info was on our computer...unattainable at that time.

But we all know that God provides don't we? I hope so! There was a couple that we started talking to at the airport one stop from our destination country. They were traveling back for their summer vacation, as now they live abroad. We shared with them about our adoption journey and they shared with us about the country. Anyway, after we did not see anyone for us and the airport was thinning out hubby and I were praying so hard for an answer of what to do... Our new "friends" came over to check on us, they were concerned about us. A friend of theirs met them at the airport that they were not expecting...(imagine that) Turns out he was a taxi driver! So after praying some more we decided to do as he suggested and head to a hotel to sort things out and get on our computer. We were able to contact our wonderful facilitator she was able to help us out. While we waited we went looking for a wee bite to eat. We walked all the way around the hotel with not a morsel of food to be found. Headed back to our room and tried to order room service. Had a pizza and cokes brought up. It was different then our pizza so we ate what we liked and it helped a lot.

Finally we were tucked into our apartment and slept for quite some time!! We arrived a whole day early to get over jet lag and get settled. Now this is funny...we walked out of our apartment courtyard all ready to explore, and going past the gate freaked us out!! Okay maybe me more then hubby, and he agreed to turn around and go back into the apartment!! After searching the internet for a map of some sort we ventured back out again. We walked up and down the street in front of our apartment each way as far as it would go. What fun and the hours we were gone oh my!! I even let my hubby go down some side streets, we saw so much and even an open market! What fun!! We then stopped at the corner grocery and bought a few things. It was like a treasure hunt so fun and exciting!! (at least it was for me!)

Our adoption journey had begun! Next day we met our beautiful little girl that God had picked out especially for us!! And what a journey it had been so far!

Why am I telling all of this story and maybe not very interesting to you? There is a moral and an ending to this I promise! The moral of the story is NOT to panic, NOT to overly obsess about planning your adoption journey! Go through it one moment at a time and immerse yourself in your surroundings! Don't worry about what you know because it might not be that way! Look all around at the people, buildings, animals, and take in the smells and sounds too! You are going to a foreign country and YOU are the one who is different! Chances are the country is a LOT different then what you used to. Food, taxi rides, beds and most importantly the traditions and customs will be different! When we were in country I always tried to be very courteous and follow others lead the way!! In America we are such a now society!! (I can say that because that is how I am sometimes too) We want everything our way, our time, and even the quickest way possible! I won't mention how we all need to rely on God and his timing because we all know that too! :)

Just remember to enjoy your adoption journey (or any journey God chooses to take you on) and praise God that he took you on it! Rejoice that you are getting a HUGE gift from God! He will never leave or forsake you!! Psalms 38:21 O LORD, do not forsake me; be not far from me O my God. In a different country or even in your own backyard! Thank you God!!