I have to fly for how long???? And it cost's how much????

A dear family from our church has offered SEVERAL times to donate frequent flier miles for our travel. We were a little hesitant for a couple of reasons. 1) Our agency books flights in "groups". Meaning, we will travel with a couple other families also adopting. We weren't sure we had the option to make our own travel arrangements. 2) 2 round trip tickets (and possible extra 1 way) to Africa has got to eat up a lot of miles. Who has that many miles? Would this families miles get us even from here to DC? 3) We will have about 10 days to book our flight (we think). Is this possible to do w/ FF miles? 4) Were this families FF miles even connected with Ethiopia Airlines? 5) What if financially we are counting on these miles, then find that we can't get a flight with them?
Well, we finally got around to asking our worker about it. She told us that it is possible. As much as it is nice to travel with the group for the sake of relationship, it is possible. We just have to be to Ethiopia at the time they tell us to be.
So we told the family that we got the okay from our agency to proceed. We also found out that indeed, their miles were in connection with Ethiopian Airline. We agreed that we would keep in touch on the issue. Well, she then contacted her Airline and was able to get more specifics. I won't bore you with the details. But pretty much, it goes like this: They have enough miles to get us 2 round trip tickets from Denver, CO to Africa! (I think maybe they bought their house on their credit card. :) ) They don't see much of a problem with the last minute issue. And now, rather than a straight through 20 hour flight (which is what it would have been going through our agency), it's 2 trips 10 hours each. We get to get out and sleep for a couple of hours in Germany or London. THIS IS HUGE!!!! The airfare portion of the travel can range in the $2-$3 K per person. Ouch. I'm not good with numbers, but I think that 2 round trip airfares covered by someone else's frequent flier miles is a pretty big chunk of change. Man, Jesus loves us.

So, to all who actually read this - please pray with us that the timing will work (meaning we can get a flight when needed without having to add too many days to our travel plans), Also pray that there will be frequent flier seats available. In my doubting heart, I tend to want to raise the travel money just the same .... just in case. But in the corner of my heart that holds that mustard seed - I think God has just answered a HUGE prayer...as now we are so very close to having all the money needed to make this all come together. Pray that my mustard seed will grow. Pray for wisdom to know if we should rest in this, or move forward with fund raising. (And I said I wasn't going to doubt about the money again....HA! Did anyone really believe that?)

News, news, and more news...although, no news of baby yet.

This past week has been up and down for me. I wrote earlier in the week regarding "Time". I read some things that our agency posted last Sunday night that had me so confused, and very worried. (Yes, here I go on the worry thing again.) It made it sound like we would be waiting for up to a year for you. The longer time passed w/o speaking to someone, the more my doubting brain concocted all these ugly scenarios. Go figure. So, needless to say, the last post was written out of pure uneducated worry. Aaron finally got a hold of someone from AWAA late Monday afternoon, and was able to clear things up. We were told that we should expect about a 5 month wait time. Okay, so that's May. Then travel July(ish). This should be great. However, I still allowed myself time to sulk and pout and whine over the added 4 months wait time to what we were originally told when starting this process over a year ago. (I'm pretty sure that was a run on sentence, but then again, my brain is a whole bunch of run on thoughts right now, so oh well.) Aaron came to me with so many positives. Turns out the wait time has increased slightly (as 4 months is still incredible in the adoption world), not as a result of our agency, but b/c there are SO many people that are now adopting from Ethiopia. Aaron was quick to remind me that this is a good problem. There are people out there...and a lot of them...that are caring for the orphans ! Like I said, I allowed myself to sulk, then the next day - agreed with him. Praise God that mans hearts are being enlarged to do such a thing. Plus, now I can hit all the garage sales once I found out just who you are and all we will need for you. :) (One of Mommy's favorite things!)

Then on Friday afternoon there was a conference call with 53 other waiting families, hosted by our program director, Duni. Man, what a hard job she has. Dealing with impatient families who just want to meet their children. (Or maybe it's just us....nah..) I still don't fully understand the process. However, I do more fully understand that we have a wonderful, Christ-centered, agency working on our behalf...but even better - on your behalf. This is comforting. They filled us in with many details that we had wondered, and some we hadn't thought of. So, all in all, it was good.

Last but not least..... oh, I think I'll give this one a post of it's own. :)

Time is not on my side

We have some friends who are also adopting from Ethiopia (with a different organization). They submitted their Dossier a month after we did. And within 10 days of it arriving in Ethiopia, they got a referral of a 6-7 month old boy (which happened just the other day). As much as I'm so very thrilled for them, jealousy tends to be trying to take over that joy. I have no idea what is going on. I don't know where you are, where they'll find you, when, and how. Our agency seems to have run into some snags with placing you little ones from Ethiopia. Seems they can't keep up with the demands, or something. Ugh..... this is hard.... very hard. I can't wait for the day I get the email telling me they've found you!!!! Until then, I pray that you are safe and as healthy as can be. I pray you are in the arms of someone who has enough love in their heart to give you until you come to us. I pray that you are protected and sheltered and loved by your Heavenly Father. I pray you come soon.