The Journey Begins

The two year plus long journey that this adoption process has taken so far now comes to fruition with a journey across the ocean.  Our travel dates have been confirmed, our tickets are booked and we are scheduled to depart this Friday morning.  The last few days have been a whirlwind.  We found out on Friday that our requested Consulate appointment date of August 31 was accepted, but changed to August 30th.  There was some question about whether they would be ready for that date or not, so we had to wait until Monday to get the official word that yes, they thought we would be okay to accept that date.  So, I spent the weekend packing what I could.  Then when we got the word yesterday we frantically searched for flights.  With the short time frame our travel agent was having trouble finding anything.  After much stress, we finally settled on a plan and we are all booked to go.  The first leg of our journey takes us from Des Moines through Detroit and then directly into Taipei with a 17 hour flight.  We will have a free day in Taipei before flying to Taitung on Monday to receive Ciana.  We’ll spend two days in Taitung and then fly back to Taipei for three days before returning to the United States.  While this is an exciting time, it is also very stressful, anxious, etc.  Please pray for our health, for smooth flights and easy connections, for an easy attachment and anything else you can think of!  All in all we’d like prayer for, as I've heard it said, a smooth delivery!