Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Thoughts and concerns one week out...


Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus…1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

It is so hard to believe that in one week we will be on a plane on our way to China. It is going to be a crazy, amazing, joyous, hectic, blessed trip that will involve 10 planes, 1 train, 5 hotels, countless van rides, lots of signatures and paperwork, hours of tears and laughter, and many lives forever changed.

Surprisingly, I have been strangely calm these past few days. It is unlike me to be so calm when I have an ever growing list of things to accomplish in a short amount of time. There have been several trips to the store to buy last minute items, several trips to the pharmacy for prescriptions that we need to take with us, and several hours of planning and organizing. Through it all though, I have felt a peace that is clearly a result of all of the prayers of our friends and family. God hears our prayers.

Today though, I had to remind myself to be joyful and give thanks in all circumstances. I spent almost the entire day on the phone with different people (Delta, cardiologist, oxygen suppliers, etc.) trying to be sure we have everything we need in regards to the oxygen for our new son. I did make progress...for one thing, we definitely have an airline approved portable oxygen concentrator (poc) that we can take with us! This was such good news to hear! Thank you to my cousin Phillip for getting a friend of his involved in this! This friend is a stranger to us, but he has used his resources and contacts to assist us. We are so grateful. We also got the completed form from our cardiologist so that we will be able to take the poc on the plane.

The issue now, is the number of batteries we need. We will not be allowed to board the plane with the poc without 150% of the total flying time in battery life. Well my friends, when you are flying to the other side of the world, this means you need a LOT of battery life. In our estimate (and I will find out if our estimate is correct tomorrow), we need a total of 8 rechargeable batteries, and we currently have 2. The best price we can find on these batteries is $250 per battery. We have looked in to renting the batteries, which would be considerably less ($40 per battery/per week times 3 weeks), but as of now we haven’t found a place that actually has 6 of this type of battery even available to rent. And, we are running out of time.

While I am excited beyond comprehension that we are leaving in one week, I am also feeling the stress of that because of this oxygen issue. I was reminded today by my wise cousin though, that the very same God who has provided this poc (and everything else we have thus far needed for these two adoptions) can provide batteries beyond what the airplane can even carry!

So that is where we are...asking for guidance, praying for wisdom, seeking His face, and giving Him glory for all that He has done and will do.

I will post our itinerary as soon as I get the official one from our agency. I can tell you for sure though, that we will get our son on May 19 and our daughter on May 27! China is 12 hours ahead of us here, so this will actually be the night of Saturday, May 18 and the night of Sunday, May 26 here in the U.S. I promise to post as much as possible here so that all of you, who have played such a big part in this process, can see the faces of the precious children who will soon be a part of our family. I want you to witness the blessing and miracle of adoption!

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