Getting ready to leave

I can say this: Our preparations to go get Kate are very very different from our trip to get Sydney!

Getting two kiddos packed up, one to go with us, and one to stay with Grandma for two weeks, in the middle of all the other work and family logistics, is very different from just getting the two of us ready (with no children) four years ago.

We are about 36 hours from leaving for the airport, and while we are packed for the most part, I'm not sure I can say we're ready to leave! Having to say goodbye to Peter early Wednesday morning is going to be tough, even though I know he will have a great time with his grandmother, and we're leaving little gifts and recordings for him to open while we are gone.

I'm a little... worried?... about how Sydney will do on the long flight and the adjustment to being 11 hours off of our local time. We are following a program that we have used before to reduce the effects of jet-lag, but 11 hours is still 11 hours, and she is still not at the stage where she can just decide to be still and quiet for more than 5 minutes if she's not tired. Trying to get her to "act like it's night-time" when her body doesn't feel like it's night-time might be a challenge.

Add to that the last-minute prep that always goes with a trip like this and the added inflexibility of having two children with pretty regular schedules, and it's just... DIFFERENT!

I keep stopping and remembering that we have a daughter over there, and that in less than a week she will be a part of our family! This little girl, of whom we only have three pictures, will be in our arms and crying and sleeping and eating and smiling and real and alive! No longer just a still photo that leaves you wondering what her personality is like, but a real child! It's wild, let me tell you.

If you're reading this, hopefully you know us and will be praying for us. We need your prayers, to be sure! We are so excited about this adoption, despite all the logistics and details and minutiae and stress. In a few days time, we will be in China! A few days after that, we will have Kate in our arms!

God is good! We just have to keep reminding ourselves to see beyond the urgent and relish that truth.