We leave TOMORROW!

I can't believe it is finally here. We leave for Michigan tomorrow. We are staying the night at my father in law's Thursday night and then we get to pick Lima up on Friday from Chicago. After we pick her up, we go straight to Michigan and get to spend 10 days with our soon to be daughter! Dropping her off at the airport is going to be so hard. I am not looking forward to it, but through the grace of God, I will have the strength.

The children get to go to a vacation Bible school while they are here and will get Russian Bibles. I pray that many will accept Christ on the trip. It will be interesting to see how Lima is with the other children on the trip. We hope to go to the zoo if the weather is good. I have been told she likes to take pictures. I got her a small camera and thought this would be a good opportunity for her.

I am still working on my Russian and getting a bit better. Maybe Lima will speak some Spanish lol, I would be good then. Lloyd has started learning Russian as well and doing ok so far. He has less time, but when he can squeeze it in, he does.

I am not sure if I will have access to the Internet when we are in Michigan, so I may not get to post anything until when we get back!

As far as the adoption process goes, I have sent off for all the papers I need and am just waiting on a few. Lloyd has his physical on the 8th. Then we should be able to have the homestudy and the next step is getting the Dossier ready. I am not sure how long all of this takes. (this is our first international adoption). It is pretty new to me. I hope to have her home before Christmas, although that may be a high expectation. I would really love to have her home before her birthday (Nov 12).

On a sadder note, with the approaching departure time, I am quickly realizing how hard it is going to be to leave my other babies!! I have never been away from Chloe or Sarah for more than a day. They are excited about going to grandma's, but it is killing me. Jacob will be fine, though he said he will miss me too. The other night he got sad about it. This is HUGE for him. He has Asperger syndrome, a form of autism, and when he was first diagnosed, we never knew what to expect and I am so happy at where he is now. When he sad he was going to miss me and almost cried, I thought back to when I wondered if he would ever say, "I love you" and know what it meant. He does, he is in our world again and I thank God for those blessings.

I think Brandon is going to love spending time at grandmas. He will be getting his permit to drive while we are gone. It is a big milestone I am going to miss. He is fine with it and has been amazing through this process. In the beginning, I was worrying about needing to go to Russia for 3-4 weeks and leave the little ones to a point, that I almost did not want to do this. Brandon said, "you are worrying about your kids not having a mom for 3 weeks and this little girl doesn't even have a mom." I was so proud of him at that moment.

I know this is all worth it. God has a plan for the whole thing. I am so excited to see where He leads us next!

Thank you for your continued prayers!