Updates

We got some new photos of the kids and they look very healthy as always. Baby Z is so round and cute, but I have been a bit sad to see her the last two times as she is getting so OLD and big and not smiling... Maybe she just doesn't like the camera? I want to see her smile again! But M looks very happy and content and ready to be in my arms!

I got a message a few days ago saying that we should be prepared to travel!! Oh how this pulls my heart in so many directions! I have wanted deep down in my heart, to travel from the very beginning. To touch and see and smell their country. To meet them where they are, and bring them on the journey home with me, rather than be dropped in a strangers arms in a big strange place.

But one nice thing about our agency is that they did not encourage travel, and had used escorts to bring home children since they began their Congo program (they just brought their 100th child home last weekend!) I was comfortable they knew what they were doing, and it worked so well and much less stress would be put on our own family.

We did still request that we not travel, but waiting and praying to hear what GOD wants to happen, as that will be the answer we receive from the agency! If travel is necessary, Scott will not be going, as if God forbid something happens, it would be best for one parent to stay home, and my desire to go to Africa is much stronger than his! So the prayer there is : Who will go with me?! I can not go alone... (for safety or practicality of bringing home two young children I don't even know on a 24 hour international flight)

Not traveling means that A,B, and E will not be under stress at having me gone for a week. Their life will carry on as usual before they are rocked by two new siblings. E needs Mommy. Or at least he thinks he does, and I know they would all be much calmer and things would run much more smoothly if I didn't take off to Africa for a week. For the kids, for my business.
Not traveling means that our jobs can continue on until the kids are HOME, and we can then take more time off to bond with them and get them used to their crazy new life, their crazy new home, their crazy new family, and not feel the pressure to get back to work as quickly.
Not traveling means we do not have to rush around getting all sorts of immunizations and travel visas and paperwork in order, packing like a mad person to basically "camp" in a hotel (you can't even open your mouth in the shower as you can get parasites just like THAT, and that can make your trip a most unpleasant one, sometimes debilitating you- another reason to NOT travel alone- a lot of folks get sick, and you need someone to do what needs to be done and care for the children...), and personally a lot of stress can be relieved with not traveling, as I already feel the stress of them being home building up- yes, my hair IS falling out... and stress of traveling to a place like DRC is VERY high for someone like me who has never been out of the country.

But traveling would be an amazing experience that I would never forget and would most likely mean a lot to M and Z in the future. Right now it is up to God, via what our agency tells us.

I was up half the night having crazy traveling dreams. In one dream we had to compete in a 10 mile triathlon, and our children (in this case A and B were there and had to swim a mile) and you didn't get to bring your children home until the race was completed, and it depended on where you placed as to how long you had to stay there. And I had a pet baby kangaroo that was in an aquarium in my room? Yeah, it is starting...

(There is an antimalarial drug that many take (necessary to take these when going to DRC!) that is said to cause terrible nightmares. Others just say it causes them to have vivid dreams. This worries me as my dreams are already so vivid and real, but not often nightmares... )

So prayers that we be okay with "God's will be done"!