Up, Up and Away!

Well, friends...we have said goodbye to the boys for the week (with only a few tears shed on my part), checked our bags at the front desk (50.0 lbs on the dot!), and made our way through security.  We have two hours until take off and I am a bundle of nerves.  My hands are shaking, I have a stress headache, and my stomach is churning.  But, that’s okay.  Because the plane that we are about to step on will take us one flight closer to our baby girl!

I thought I’d give you a run down of what our week will look like because I know so many of you, out of your love and support, want to walk this journey with us.  We will arrive in Sofia on Sunday around 1pm, Bulgarian time.  This is wonderful because it will give us time to get our bearings, check in to our hotel, grab some dinner, Skype with the boys, and then hit the hay early.  After over 24 hours of being awake/traveling, I know we will be beyond exhausted!

Early Monday morning, we will hop in the car with our translator/driver/guide and he will drive us to a town outside of the little village where Sadie lives with her foster family.  We will visit with her 3 to 4 hours each day on Monday through Thursday.  This may be done in one long visit or may be broken down in to 2 shorter visits each day, depending on what the foster family prefers.  I’m not sure where we are going to be visiting with her, but I do know that it will not be in the foster family’s home.  On Friday, we will visit with her in the morning only and then head back to Sofia around noon.  We will fly out EARLY Saturday morning and arrive back at my parents’ house on Saturday night, spent both physically and emotionally.

During the visits with Sadie, we will be playing with the toys that we have brought for her, talking to her, snuggling her (if she desires), taking pictures/video and showing her pictures and video of the boys.  We will be asking the foster parents questions about Sadie’s schedule, medical records, likes and dislikes.  In general, we will be soaking in every minute we can in hopes of getting to know who she is and how we can best ease her transition into our family!

I know so many of you are praying for us and this blesses us beyond measure!  I’m going to attempt to update this blog each day (or every other day) so that it will feel as though you are here with us!  For now, please be praying...
for safe flights for us and safety for the boys and my parents while we are away
for my nerves to calm down and peace to come over us (I very much dislike flying!)
for God to prepare our hearts to meet Sadie and Sadie’s heart to meet us!

Thank you all for faithfully loving us and our little girl so very much!  

UPDATE:  We made it to Vienna!  One more leg of the trip...from here we fly to Sofia!