Hello? Hello??? Anyone here?

Wow, it's been quiet around here! Is anyone still reading? Just check'in, cuz my footsteps are echoing!

So, it's official! For real!

Monday the 5th, bright and early, I'll be hopping on a plane to Chicago, then DC, where I'll meet up with Shelley. Rumor has it we'll have a several hour layover, and so we'll have the chance to meet up with Andrea, founder of Reece's Rainbow. I'm so excited to have the opportunity to meet her. I'm also incredibly excited to meet Shelley! (which is another post all together.)

From there we'll fly to Frankfurt where it appears we will spend several hours sleeping in the airport?????? (Ummm....Shelley???)

Airports should rent sleeping rooms. Seriously. You know, a square windowless room with a hospital mattress or something. Pay for 4 hours at a time or something, huh? Yeah, I know the possibilities are wonderful and horrifying all at the same time. Scratch that idea. The images floating around in my mind are not good!

From Frankfurt we'll move on to Belgrade, Serbia. Shelley has found us a very cool place for the few days we'll be there. And, it's right in the heart of FUN STUFF so we should have some awesome pictures to post as well! I'll post more about the details of the Serbia visit later. Suffice it to say, this portion of the trip will require a lot of prayer from all my warriors here!

On Friday the 9th we'll head to Sofia, Bulgaria. I'm thinking this evening will involve a lot of sleeping, and possibly some homework for me! I know I'll have a couple of writing assignments to do, not to mention m.a.t.h.

On Sunday the 11th I'll have the honor of photographing the reunion of Shelley and her newest son Kullen! I'm sure I'll be a blubbering mess! I bet Shelley will hold it all together just fine, right Shelley?

Sometime of the course of the next week we'll be meeting with the families of Bulgaria who have chosen to keep their children with Down syndrome. Have I mentioned there are now TWENTY FOUR families???? I'm so excited to see their faces when we show them the generosity of all of YOU! I'm sure I will be a puddle of tears. I can't wait to share the experience with you.

We are scheduled to head home on Friday the 16 th, however it's very possible I'll be coming home alone. Our tickets are scheduled for the same time, but there is a possibility Shelley and Kullen will run into a glitch with the issuing of his new passport. Bulgaria has chosen this particular week to begin the process of changing their passports to digital photographs. So, just in case, Shelley made sure the tickets for her and Kullen are changeable. Mine are NOT! As you may recall, I'll be coming home to finals week and really only have one afternoon for error!

You know when I said that Serbia part of the trip needed prayer? Who was I kidding? The entire TRIP needs prayer. There are things that can go wrong throughout the journey, or it can all be perfect. If this was a vacation, it would need prayer to go smoothly. But it's not a vacation. There will be no such thing as "rest" on this trip. This trip is all about making a better life for the children of Easter Europe who have been tossed aside in a society that doesn't believe they should exist, but have been saved by their families who have taken a leap of faith and KEPT them. This trip is about lifting THEM up, letting them see the possibilities, and leaving them with hope. That doesn't just need prayer, it needs something much bigger than that. It needs an army.