Day One The Journey to Hanna

I'm still practically having to pinch myself right now as I fly high in a US Airway plane on my way to San Francisco with a really cute little Asian girl sitting beside me that happens to be my daughter Adah who had been praying for a brother or sister for years! She is busily working on sticking little stickers on a numbered square and is quite content!

I told you my friends that I would tell you about yesterday which led up to how we got here. We recieved the travel notice on Hanna Friday morning which was Bekah's 15th birthday and she couldn't have been more excited! With all the ups and downs we have had on this journey, the false starts, we were both prepared to hear the news that we may need to wait until October. Instead it was the news we had all been waiting for! I think it took until almost 2 PM while we were ice skating with Bekah for all of it to sink in and realize that this time next year I would be after a little toddler on the ice. I started to look at things not just as firsts, but as also lasts. Lasts that our family would never fit into a booth at Texas Roadhouse. We wouldn't go for ice cream as a family of four, no skating outings, or trips to the barn. With the four Weigner girls. Our dreams were coming true, and I practically couldn't contain myself, yet all of our lasts, with the hope of all the firsts carried with it the heart ache that Hanna's foster family I'm sure had been notified....that their goodbye would be very soon! That there lasts were permanent. She has taken care of our little girl now for a year, and I don't know that I would have the strength to do what is before her. I simply cannot wait to embrace this wonderful woman and just thank her that she was a part of a miracle. Bekah and Brienna have written letters to the foster sisters that are about their same ages, just thanking them for the love and selflessness they have shown all of their sister and that they would be praying for them regularly in the days, weeks and months ahead. They also let them know they would love to stay in touch.

Well I digress from my weekend and all of the emotions. On to the miracle of yesterday. It actually starts on Tuesday. I have made many adoption friends this time round with the social networking available today, and I had met a woman that was travelling next week to also bring their little boy home that ws with SWS Agency. They had received their travel notice and she happened to tell me that they were at another hotel because they were told the Guest House was full. That started my mind turning, realizing if they were already told that news than I'm sure we would be in a similar situation. So instead of waiting until Wednesday morning to hear the news, I started to look around on the internet for hotels for our family. Though Seoul is a very metropolitan city, I was told by the man that booked ourairline tickets that it comes down to fire code. You cannot have more than 3 people in a room. Crazy to think that for most of our time here Mark and I would have to get possibly separate rooms with one girl each, and I can't even begin to tell you about the prices. While this was happening, I knew there was a major need for baby rice cereal put out by Holt Korea. Since the Ministry is delaying everything, the children are getting older, they are in foster homes longer and the food is running out more quickly. Another adoptive friend had asked before if we could take the rice cereal, so I let her know we would just make it work and use our baggage allotment to see how much we could take. We are allowed 8 bags, and after Mark took a look at our things, he felt we could do 3 totes. So my adoptive friend Beth, went straight to work and she delivered 2 completely packe totes all ready for travel to our front door. I had another friend ask what she could do to help, and I put her to the task of putting together another tote as Mark felt we could do three! You can imagine what it would look like to have so much baggae coming into a city where so many things are compact! :)

Another adoptive Mum actually has a blog that shows step by step how you can fill a tote with rice if you are going to Korea. I read that she had requested Holt Korea to pick up the tubs at the airport so they didn't have to figure out how to carry them. From the airport to their hotel and than to the Holt Offices. I decided I had better touch base with Welcome House and ask the Korea Coordinator if this could be done for us. I also mentioned the predicament we were in with hotels and whether she would feel it appropriate for us to ask about the discounts that Holt has at some hotels since we have two precious daughters as a result of Holt Korea, and even Hanna is tied to Holt through Adah, though now she is with a different agecny. She said that it certainly didn't hurt to ask, so she compiled an email to say how Holt is near and dear to our hearts from the adoption of our other two girls, and that we wanted to know if we could be included in the discount since SWS just didn't seem to have anything.

She let me know she would send the email, but we wouldn't hear anything until Wednesday morning. The day before we have our airline booked! Well Wednedsay comes and I get the call from Spence Chapin that indeed the SWS guest house is booked. I also received an email from Welcome House and our social worker there to say that they did not receive an email from Holt in the morning, but that she would try again. I have to admit my heart started to panic. In the midst of this, another adoptive Mum friend I have met, is with Holt Korea and currently in Korea getting her sweet girl, and she is facebooking me to tell me about meeting Molly Holt. She happened to tell me that DJ, the social worker with Holt Korea said our family was booked in a guest house! I was floored. Okay God what to do here. It's 11 PM Seoul time, someone is telling me we have some guestroom booked, yet Welcome House has no record of it. I quickly emailed our social worker at Welcome House to let her know what this woman in Korea had said. We joked about how our plans always end up in this crazy cacophony of.....something and I wasn't sure what to do. I than hit the computer again, and about to resign to the fact that we may have to spend $600.00 a night for two rooms. You see Spence Chapin would DEEPLY frown upon us leaving for Korea without confirmed hotel lodging. I knew God would provide yet I was starting to think of what happened to those tired travellers when there was no room at the Inn. I think I even had the thought....Seoul doesn't even have stables GOD! :) I was on the phone with Mark practically in tears, yet had an underlying peace that God would go ahead. It wasn't just that the cost of a room was insane, they were quickly disappearing before my eyes on the internet. Just as I'm about to lose it, Welcome House calls me and Patty has come to the rescue. After she got my email about the woman in Korea, she went and found a human resources officer to get into the Korea Coordinator's office and into her compter.(remember she was on vacation starting Wednesday) GUESS WHAT! Jehovah Jireh! God provides. There WAS a letter in the inbox from Holt Korea and for some reason it didn't get forwarded to the other people at work. I was shaking at this point. She just kept reading that WE WERE BOOKED at the DMCVille, for under 200 a night for a 2 or 3 bedroom unit. I had actually emailed this hotel and was turned down because they only contract out with larger corporations, and Holt Korea rents one of their condos each year. I actually think they are less than a year old! These are foreigner condos , Wireless, a full kitchen, pool, athletic gym, and a children's play area! Patty than went on to tell me that a driver would be coming to get the crates of rice cereal to transfer to Holt Korea and they were VERY thankful. On top of this they offered us transportation to our hotel at their regular Holt fee! I was just crying, screaming, laughing...and so was Patty on the other end. You see she was our social worker for adopting Adah, so all these connections run very deep!

Patty and I were so excited! She than realized there was another part of the letter she hadn't read which said that Holt had been able to contact Adah's foster mother and we have an appt. With her on Tuesday morning! The last we had heard Adah's foster mother was no longer fostering and the number they had on file with her was disconnected. Adah was upset about it, but understood it was out of our hands. We just had people pray, if it was the Lord's will that they may find her. I was just besides myself and so overcome to see how God just uses everyday people doing simple everyday things to put all the pieces of His perfect plan together....to say TA DA! There was really no humanly possible way as all the hotels were booked, booked, booked, but GOD MADE a way for us! I have read the story of Moses too many times to count, I've taught it before to many children, yet at that moment, I felt like I was standing in front of the Red Sea, with the rush of the wind almost knocking me off my feet! Friend if you are somewhere and it seems like there is only the Red Sea in front of you. An obstacle so big, it makes you want to stay in bed, or maybe even just give up on God. Be patient, keep your eyes on Him and Trust His heart. Maybe He's asking for a step of obedience, just as they had to put their feet into the Jordan River I believe it was , but just know that you are seen, by a loving God. He has His plan, the waiting is OH SO HARD, but when He says it's time.....have something to hang onto, because when He moves, it will certainly knock you off your feet!!!

My tailbone is still hurting.....:)

Ephesians 3:20,21