Passport Arrived!!

(Greg here)
The "hurry-up and wait" has now moved solidly into "hurry up"! We got word today that after much waiting, our beautiful daughter's passport has finally arrived. We have been given permission to begin making the tentative travel plans. We should be able to finalize plans in the next 24-48 hours. We have airline tickets on hold to leave March 27 and return on April 8. We will be able to finalize once our adoption agency gets a bit more clarity on some information and can get some appointments scheduled within India.

If the plans just listed hold to form, then we will arrive in India at 12:15am Sunday night/Monday morning. We will then do some history reconnaissance over the next few days. Some places we hope to find, visit, film, and interview are at the hospital grounds where she was found, the orphanage where she spent the first two and a half years of her life, and the general area in which she grew up. We know almost to the spot where she was found. We will likely try to gather some soil, rock, or some other physical component of where she was abandoned. We do not know if we will be able to visit her orphanage but sure hope to. That would sure be a great part to add to prayer. From there, we would meet her on Friday. We would spent the day with her at VCT, and then she would return with us to the hotel that night. From then on, she will be with us constantly. What a change for her. What a change for us. I am so afraid that she will be so afraid. She can't love us right now. I know that and do not expect that. I do hope very much that she feels at ease enough with us that she is able to cope with that time fairly well. Hopefully it will feel more like a grand adventure during those first minutes and days rather than a terrifying abduction.

Anyway, after that meeting on Friday, she will then join us on a cross-country flight (can you fly "cross-country" if you are going from north to south rather than across the country? I don't know. It is good to ponder. Maybe I will think about that as I lie awake tonight. That is going to be happening mostly because of the info we have received but also because of the Serious Chocolate Ice Cream from UDF. Man o man, I am going to miss UDF ice cream while there. That will be one of the first things I get upon return. Now back to your regularly scheduled blogging.......) on Sunday afternoon to New Delhi. Once in New Delhi, her exit-medical examination will be on Monday. On Tuesday we plan to visit the Taj Mahal. On Wednesday, we return to the medical center to receive her TB certificate. Later that same day, we will our exit interview at the US Consulate. On Thursday, we will return to the consulate to pick up her passport with her visa attached. The kids also hope to visit a zoo and so this might be zoo-day as well. We return home on Friday.

Prior to the arrival of our other three children, I had an incredible sense of how much our lives were about to change. That has definitely begun to settle in once again. I know bringing her into our home is what is best for both her and us, but good golly, it is awfully.....well, I don't really know but it is awfully something (insert a variety of strong emotions here).