Travel is booked

I just spent a good bit of my morning on-line with a Northwest agent. I have now booked our return air fare back to Almaty for Saturday, May 26th and landing in Almaty on Monday, May 28th. This is the same route we took before. We just couldn't come up with any other options that really saved us much money. I checked with a travel agent on something that flew out of New York, Boston or D.C., but I have to get there. Besides at this point I'm wanting to keep things as simple as possible.

Besides I have this idea in my head of stepping off that plane with Almira when we return and our family being there to greet her. I would hate to arrive at an airport off somewhere and drive a couple of hours to get home. I was able to do the adoption fare on Northwest and even though I paid more for my ticket I got good prices for Sarah's and Almira's. Almira's ticket was over half off. It was so strange booking an airline ticket for her. She now has a plane ticket with the name "Almira Bradford". We will fly out of Almaty on Monday, June 4th. I hated to stay another weekend, but I was afraid we may need all 4 days in Almaty to get everything done.

I'll have to ask again for everyone's prayers for us that things continue to go smoothly. God has blessed us so much and I don't think without all the prayers our first trip would have gone as smoothly. I got an idea while I was there of just some of the things that could go wrong. There was a couple there when we were that had visited their 2 girls for 10 days only to find out that the Ministry of Education had messed up and one girl was on hold for a Kazak family and the other girl wasn't off of the registry. They left on the plane with us and said they were coming back in 3 months when this girl was off the registry. They had been there for 2 weeks.

I've heard stories of other people having family members show up at the last minute to contest the adoption. Almira is not fully our daughter until next Tuesday, May 15th. That is the 15th day after court and the time period when someone can contest the adoption. We are of course hopeful and prayerful that no family members will appear out of the wood work, but I have to realize it could happen. I think she is old enough and even told the judge that if anyone from her family showed up to get her, she wanted to go with us, because none of them ever came to check on her or see her when she was in the orphanage.

The thing about international adoption is you just can't fully relax and be sure about anything until your child is in your home. There are so many hurdles to jump to reach the finish line. This is truly not an experience for the faint of heart. Actually I was talking about this at lunch today and said "I just can't imagine going through this process without great faith in God. How could you suffer all these ups and downs without knowing that we have a God that is so great he can move mountains. Who do you lean on when you are ready to give up all hope?" Even more than that, how can we as simple mortals determine who our child should be? I had to simply turn that job over to God. Almira doesn't know it yet, but she was hand selected by God to join our family. I'm not sure I can tell her that yet, until she has a better understanding of what it means to be a Christian. She may think we're a bunch of nutcases. Of course she may think that already, but hopefully still loves us.

Okay. I'm through with my evangelizing now. Halleluiah, praise the Lord!!

Till later,
Kathy