The waiting game isn't a fun game!

I feel like a teenager except that instead of sitting by the phone waiting for a call from a goofy boy, I'm sitting here at the computer waiting for an email telling me we can FINALLY travel to bring our daughter home. My how things have changed! This waiting is much more difficult but also MUCH more worthwhile! We completely expected to hear from Dillon today. I have been on pins and needles for the last two days. Poor Mike. He's about ready to strangle me. When they have the date, Dillon will send us an email telling us the date for our Giving and Receiving Ceremony. We should have around two weeks before the date to plan our trip. So, if we get our g&r date tomorrow and it's set for say, November 8th, then we would leave the states around the 5th.

I'll tell you sort of what our trip itinerary will look like. We will fly into Ho Chi Minh City (also known as Saigon) and depending on what time we arrive, either go to the orphanage the next day or the next. We'll ride a van to her province and we'll meet Olivia that day and then the g&r ceremony will most likely be the following day. Her caregiver will bring her to the g&r and once we go through the ceremony and sign papers, she'll be ours! Then we'll apply for her passport and wait a couple of days for it. Once we have her passport, we'll fly to Hanoi and apply for her visa to come to the states. Depending on how quickly we can get our interview there, we'll wait a few days or a week or better. Some families have been gone over 3 weeks, some just over 2. We're definitely praying for 2, but preparing for 3 just in case. That's a very rough overview of our trip.

Please pray pray pray for us to receive our g&r date ASAP!!! We are desperate to bring our daughter home and get back to Jake as soon as possible, too. We are so ready to be a complete family!!! On a very good note one of my very best friends, Stephanie, told me a few nights ago that they had been working on having a fundraiser for us! Our church is having a hamburger lunch fundraiser on November 5th to raise money to help us pay for our trip! It was a complete and WONDERFUL surprise! We have been so incredibly blessed by our church, our friends and our family. We're also having another garage sale this weekend. Even when we had no idea how we were going to come up with whatever amount of money we were going to need for the adoption, it's always been there. God has always been faithful to provide.

Thanks to all of you out there who are praying for us. You have no idea what it means to our family! Please pray for quick travel, pray for Jake as he stays home with JuJu and Daddy Don, please pray for Olivia and pray for us that we don't go nuts before we're all home together at last!

P.S. While you're praying, please pray also for the awesome family that will be traveling with us. They are also leaving behind their son with grandparents to bring their daughter home from the same orphanage Olivia is in. We've spoken to them quite a bit on the phone and they are great people. We are so thrilled to share this with them!